(I 


JOSEPH    REED: 


HISTORICAL    ESSAY 


BY 

GEORGE    BANCROFT, 


'  I  saw  too  glory's  holy  flowers 
Round  common  brows  profanely  twined.1' 

SCHILLER. 


NEW  YORK: 
W.    J.    WIDDLETON,    PUBLISHER. 

1867. 


A  COMPANION  VOLUME  TO  PRESCOTT. 


PHILIP  THE  SECOND, 

OF    SPAIN. 

BY     CHARLES     GATARRE, 

AUTHOR  OF  ''THE   HISTORY  OK   LOUISIANA." 

WITH  AN   INTRODUCTORY  LETTER  BY   GEORGE  BANCROFT, 

And  ttiine  Stetl  Porti-att  vf  "  Philip  '  from  the  Titian  picture,  engraved  ly  Burt 
An  elegant  Octavo  Volume,  in  large,  clear  (pica)  type,  on  heavy  toned  paper.    Price, 
Extra  Cloth,  $3 ;  Half  Calf,  $5. 

Mr.  Gayarre's  Philip  II.  is  a  graphic  picture  of  the  events  of  that  memorable  era  of 
Spanish  History,  animated  by  the  personality  of  the  Monarch,  the  exercise  of  whose 
powerful  will  in  his  unexampled  intrigue  and  subtile  despotism  is  never  relaxed.  The 
characterof  Philip,  drawn  throughout  with  skill  and  insight,  gives  unity  to  the  crowded 
scene,  us  the  vast  interests  of  Spain,  at  the  height  of  her  power,  are  reviewed  by  the 
author.  It  is  an  important  study  of  history  at  a  period  which  presents  the  most  in 
structive  lesson,  exhibiting  the  inevitable  retribution  which  waits  upon  political  des 
potism,  oppressive  religious  authority,  and  a  social  and  commercial  system,  fettering 
at  every  step  the  freedom  of  the  individual. 

The  Publisher  takes  pleasure  in  presenting  the  following  extract  from  a  letter  of  the  Hon. 
George  Bancroft,  relating  to  Mr.  Ga.yarre's  "  Philip  //." 

"  The  work  b  written  with  care  and  vivacity,  with  a  mind  superior  to  the  influences 
of  superstition,  and  comprehensive  in  the  study  of  the  causes  and  consequences  of 
events.  lie  has  a  quick  eye  for  the  picturesque,  and  a  rapid  movement  in  his  narrative, 
which,  if  sometimes  too  highly  ornamented,  *is  never  languid,  and  he  clearly  portrays 
the  social  and  political  tendencies  of  the  reign  which  he  describes." 


A   NEW   VOLUME   OF 

THE  HISTORY  OF  LOUISIANA, 

BY    CHARLES    GAYARKE, 


THE   AMERICAN   DOMINATION,  from   1803  (its  Cession 

to  the  United  States)  to  1861.     Also,  uniform  with  the  New  Volume,  new  editions 
of  the  former  volumes,  comprising 

THE    FRENCH    DOMINATION.     The  two  volumes  in  one. 
THE   SPANISH    DOMINATION.     One  volume. 

These  three  volumes  form  the  complete  history  of  the  State  of  Louisiana,  by  Mr. 
Gayarre,  and  may  be  had  in  uniform  sets,  or  either  volume  separately,  each  volume 
being  complete  in  itself.  8vo,  cloth,  $4  per  vol.  Half  calf,  $7. 

"  Mr.  Gayarre' s  HISTORY  OF  LOUISIANA  is  the  fruit  of  thorough  research,  and 
takes  a  very  high  rank  among  the  early  Histories  of  the  several  States." 

GEORGE  BANCROFT. 


JOSEPH    KEED: 


HISTORICAL    ESSAY. 


BY 

GEOEGE    BANCEOFT. 


'  I  saw  too  glory's  holy  flowers 
Bound  common  brows  profanely  twined." 

SCHILLEE. 


NEW  YORK: 
W.    J.    WIDDLETON,    PUBLISHER. 

1867. 


£303- 


Entered  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  18C7, 

BY  W.  J.  WIDDLETON, 

In  the  Clerk's  Office  of  the  District  Court  of  the  United  States  for  the 
Southern  District  of  New  Tork. 


JOSEPH     REED: 


A    HISTORICAL    ESSAY. 


TWENTY  years  ago  William  B.  Reed,  of  Philadelphia, 

published  a  life  of  his  grandfather,  Joseph  Reed,  or,  as 
he  now  styles  him,  the  "President"  of  Pennsylvania. 
He  had  prepared  himself  for  his  work  by  long  research, 
under  favorable  auspices,  and  had  amassed  a  storehouse 
of  materials  which  he  opened  to  others  with  liberality. 
An  all-pervading  zeal  for  redeeming  the  memory  of  his 
ancestor  was  obviously  the  motive  which  ruled  him. 
The  time  was  favorable ;  the  political  animosities  which 
prevailed  in  the  last  century  had  died  away;  family 
hostilities  had  ceased,  and  the  men  of  this  generation 
scorned  to  keep  alive  the  personal  enmities  of  the  past. 
Were  it  not  for  his  family  aspirations  he  would,  without 
a  dissenting  voice,  have  been  distinguished  among  con 
temporary  writers  on  American  history.  But  the  analy 
sis  of  his  statements  shows  that  he  suffered  himself  to 
be  carried  away  by  a  passion  to  create  an  undeserved 
reputation  for  one  from  whom  he  was  sprung.  As  a 
historian,  I  was  bound  to  pronounce  a  dissenting  opinion. 
Having  fulfilled  my  duty,  it  could  not  surprise  me,  and 
it  could  not  offend  me,  that  the  biographer  should  en- 


M214902 


4  JOSEPH   KEED  I 

deavor  to  relieve  the  name  of  his  ancestor,  and  to  vindi 
cate  the  views  which  I  had  overthrown.  Once  more  he 
undertakes  the  impossible  task  of  rolling  his  grand 
father's  reputation  up  hill  into  the  position  of  a  leading 
patriot.  I  only  wish  he  had  conducted  the  new  display 
of  his  ardor  with  an  accuracy  from  which  I  might  have 
derived  instruction,  and  an  equity  which  need  not  have 
required  a  reply.  I  have  through  a  long  life  accustomed 
myself  to  look  to  great  and  general  principles,  and  never 
to  take  part  in  personal  vituperation  and  asperities.  It 
is  my  nature  to  dwell  upon  that  which  is  generous  and 
great,  and  to  turn  away  from  that  which  is  paltry  and 
mean;  and  while  I  do  not  feel  at  liberty  to  temper 
honest  judgment  by  a  desire  to  win  the  favor  of  the 
descendants  of  those  of  whom  I  write,  I  always  pass 
ovqr  in  silence  the  weaknesses  and  follies  which  neither 
portray  the  times  nor  illustrate  events.  No  one  but 
myself  knows  the  candor  which  I  have  exercised,  for 
no  one  else  knows  what  materials  have  been  before 
me  and  have  been  put  aside.  To  be  forced  into  estab 
lishing  defects  of  character  in  another  is  most  irksome ; 
the  time  consumed  in  the  exposure  seems  like  a  waste 
of  life,  and  now  more  than  ever  when  so  little  of  life 
remains  to  me. 

Wishing  to  husband  every  moment  for  the  completion 
of  an  almost  finished  volume  of  American  history,  for 
several  weeks  I  refused  to  see  the  tract  upon  "  President " 
Reed,  by  his  grandson,  and  it  was  but  a  few  days  ago 
that  it  was  forced  upon  my  attention.  The  pamphlet  con 
tains  abundant  evidence  that  the  author  is  conscious  of 
the  feebleness  of  his  cause.  In  his  zeal  to  upset  evidence 
derived  from  men  of  honor,  who,  by  no  fault  of  their 
own,  fought  against  us,  but  who  wrote  dispassionately 


A   HISTORICAL   ESSAY.  5 

of  scenes  which  they  witnessed,  he  runs  a  tilt  against 
the  established  canons  of  criticism.  To  raise  a  prejudice, 
he  has  even  the  inconceivable  weakness,  when  his  grand 
father's  good  repute  is  in  question,  to  class  Riedesel 
among  Hessians,  and  to  throw  a  slur  on  Miinchausen  for 
his  name.  He  goes  about  feeling  everywhere  to  see  if 
by  chance  he  can  find  some  means  of  exciting  against 
ine  the  prejudice  of  any  man,  or  community,  or  section 
of  country.  He  runs  from  North  to  South  in  the  hope  to 
rouse  some  latent  prejudice,  that  he  may  have  associate 
accusers.  He  tries  to  enlist  in  his  behalf  the  pride  of 
the  honored  State  of  Pennsylvania,  by  styling  his  grand 
father  its  "President,"  though  he  was  born  elsewhere,  and 
died  in  private  life,  was  never  chosen  President  by  the 
direct  vote  of  the  people,  never  protected  their  good 
name,  and  has  no  right  to  sequester  their  glorious  deeds 
to  his  private  benefit.  If  men  of  the  highest  merit 
have  in  the  course  of  my  narrative  appeared  as  not 
wholly  faultless,  he  seeks  to  place  his  ancestor  in  the 
group  with  the  best  of  them.  An  author  of  a  history 
of  the  republic  has  exhibited  "  President "  Reed  as  en 
tering  a  false  plea  before  the  world ;  the  grandson  con 
tents  himself  with  leaving  the  charge  unrefuted,  and 
caviling  at  some  inaccuracy  in  the  citation  of  a  letter. 
The  same  historian  complains  of  Reed  for  a  want  of 
fidelity  to  Washington  ;  the  pleader,  with  the  folly  of  a 
petulant  child,  thinks  it  a  sufficient  reply  to  assert  that 
another  of  Washington's  secretaries  had  erred  in  the 
same  way.  Moved  by  the  very  natural  excitement 
which  comes  from  seeing  the  monument  which  he  had 
erected  to  the  pretended  virtues  and  services  of  his  an 
cestor  crumbling  to  the  dust,  the  grandson  discusses  the 
theme  as  a  subject  for  invective  and  personality,  though 


6  JOSEPH  EEED: 

angry  words  have  not  a  feather's  weight  before  the  tri 
bunal  of  historical  criticism.  He  exaggerates  the  charges 
brought  against  his  grandfather,  and  will  hear  of  nothing 
but  extreme  criminations,  as  an  artful  legal  practitioner 
before  juries  who  come  and  go,  but  whose  verdict  for  the 
particular  case  is  final,  may  be  willing  to  get  a  culprit 
acquitted  by  making  it  out  that  the  indictment  against 
him  charged  a  little  too  much.  He  insists  on  presenting 
the  question  as  one  of  life  and  death,  when  the  difference 
between  us  is  in  itself  too  wide  to  need  exaggeration. 
William  B.  Reed  describes  his  grandfather  as  a  promi 
nent  and  steadfast  patriot  of  the  Revolution ;  I  regard 
him  as  shuffling,  pusillanimous,  and  irresolute.  The 
grandson  elevates  him  to  the  position  of  a  disinterested 
and  guiding  statesman ;  I  see  that  he  was  governed  by 
selfish  considerations,  and  in  moments  of  crisis  was  of  no 
significance.  The  grandson  esteems  him  for  fidelity  and 
candor ;  I  find  his  character  tainted  by  duplicity.  The 
grandson  exalts  him  as  a  hero  whose  fortitude  increased 
with  adversity ;  I  present  him  as  a  vacillating  trimmer, 
who  in  1774  and  1775  was  not  heartily  in  the  cause  of 
his  country,  and  who  near  the  end  of  1776  meditated 
defection. 

In  discussing  these  topics  I  shall  treat  them  as  a  fit 
subject  for  scientific  investigation.  For  this  purpose  I 
shall  have  occasion  to  do  little  more  than  produce  from 
my  note-books  a  chronological  statement  of  authenticated 
facts.  I  address  myself  to  those  who  are  most  familiar 
with  thorough  literary  criticism  and  inquiry;  or,  since 
the  "  President "  and  his  grandson  belong  to  the  profes 
sion  which  has  so  largely  attracted  to  its  ranks  the  talent 
of  the  country,  I  will  write  as  though  I  were  addressing 
our  ablest  lawyers  or  the  judges  of  our  courts  of  appeal 


A   HISTOKICAL    ESSAY.  7 

That  I  may  present  the  subject  with,  distinctness  and 
order,  I  will  first  trace  the  unsteady  career  of  the  "  Presi 
dent"  to  the  close  of  1776  ;  I  will  next  consider  if  his 
subsequent  general  character  is  such  as  to  rebut  the  tes 
timony  respecting  his  previous  infidelity;  and  I  will 
lastly  explain  why  it  was  proper  and  necessary  for  the 
ends  of  history  to  hold  him  up  in  the  light  of  truth. 


PAET    FIRST. 


FOR  the  first  part  of  the  examination  which  I  am  com 
pelled  to  undertake,  the  rriaterials  are  so  abundant  that 
there  is'  no  difficulty  in  establishing  my  allegations  by 
continuous  and  irrefragable  proofs. 

1. 

After  finishing  a  course  of  studies  in  America,  Joseph 
Reed,  a  native  of  New  Jersey,  repaired  to  the  Middle 
Temple  in  London.  A  purpose  of  settling  in  England, 
encouraged  by  a  well-placed  affection,  continued  with 
more  or  less  of  uncertainty  during  the  time  of  the  stamp 
act  and  its  repeal,  and  after  the  law  declaring  the  power 
of  England  to  bind  America  in  all  cases  whatsoever,  and 
after  Charles  Townshend's  taxes  on  tea,  paper,  and  colors. 
Meantime  De  Berdt,  who  was  to  have  been  Reed's  father- 
in-law,  died,  and  Reed,  after  marrying  in  England,  de 
finitively  settled  in  Philadelphia.  During  his  stay  in 


8  JOSEPH  REED: 

England  he  formed  those  relations  which,  through  his 
brother-in-law,  Dennis  De  Berdt,  led  to  his  becoming  the 
volunteer  correspondent,  or  rather  the  volunteer  in 
former,  of  Lord  Dartmouth,  who  then,  as  American 
minister,  controlled  the  distribution  of  offices  in  America. 
His  first  letter  to  Dartmouth,  dated  the  22d  of  Decem 
ber,  1773,  derives  its  importance  for  the  present  exam 
ination  only  from  this:  In  1775,  Reed  fell  under  a  sus 
picion  of  playing  a  double  part  in  these  letters,  and  his 
defense  was :  "  In  my  first  letter  I  absolutely  disclaimed 
all  office  or  reward  for  myself"  (Reed,  i.  98).  Now,  in 
truth,  there  is  in  this  first  letter  no  disclaimer  of  office 
or  reward,  so  that  Reed  met  a  charge  of  duplicity  by  an 
answer  which  had  no  foundation  in  fact ;  and  there  was 
the  less  occasion  for  so  great  a  rnisstatement,  as  he  kept 
a  copy  of  his  letters. 

2. 

The  British  laws  of  trade,  most  oppressive  to  the 
colonies,  have  been  truly  described  by  British  statesmen 
as  "  a  system  of  robbing  and  plundering  themselves,"  so 
injurious  were  they  to  the  mere  commercial  interests  of 
Great  Britain.  There  is  no  reason  that  I  know  of  to 
believe  that  Reed  expressed  anywhere  in  America  an 
approval  of  them,  or  made  a  defense  of  the  Court  of 
Admiralty;  and  from  his  position  he  was  naturally 
classed  with  those  who  complained  of  them.  On  the 
4th  of  April,  1774,  Reed  explained  to  Lord  Dartmouth 
how  very  improper  were  the  appointments  of  the  officers 
in  the  Court  of  Admiralty,  not  excepting  even  the  judge, 
Avhom  in  his  letter,  though  not  in  the  printed  copy  of  it, 
he  described  as  "  a  disappointed  stamp  officer."  Such 
appointments,  he  said,  were  "  certain  to  invite  opposition 


A   HISTOEICAL   ESSAY.  9 

and  insure  contempt ;"  and,  he  added,  "  the  due  obser 
vance  of  the  laws  of  trade  is  so  essential  to  the  interests 
of  the  mother-country,  that  nothing  tending  to  weaken 
or  inforce  them  is  beneath  notice  "  (Reed,  i.  58).  It  is 
not  possible  to  write  more  strongly  on  the  British  side. 
Such  opinions  would  never  have  been  given  to  any  one, 
least  of  all  to  a  British  minister,  by  any  statesman  of 
New  York,  Virginia,  or  South  Carolina,  or  by  any  true- 
hearted  American  patriot.  And  it  must  be  admitted 
that  Reed  could  never  have  uttered  them  publicly  in 
Philadelphia. 

3. 

Early  in  1774,  as  matters  approached  a  crisis,  and  the 
patriots  of  the  country  needed  a  free  interchange  of  sen 
timents,  it  became  unsafe  for  them  to  use  the  established 
post-office,  which  was  in  the  hands  of  the  servants  of  the 
king.  They  therefore  proposed  a  system  of  their  own ; 
but  this  measure,  whether  it  met  with  public  counte 
nance  from  Reed  in  Philadelphia  or  not,  was  privately 
and  repeatedly  disapproved  of  by  him  in  his  letters  to 
Dartmouth. 

4. 

In  the  same  year,  when  all  the  colonies,  one  after 
another,  held  conventions  to  discuss  measures  for  the 
relief  of  Boston,  suffering  under  the  Port  Act,  and  to 
sustain  Massachusetts  in  resisting  the  violation  of  her 
charter,  Pennsylvania  too  held  its  convention.  The 
country  people  brought  down  word  of  the  spirit  and 
zeal  that  prevailed  in  the  interior,  but,  through  an 
influence  exerted  on  the  convention  in  the  city  of  Phila 
delphia,  their  proceedings  were  comparatively  tame. 


10  JOSEPH   EEED  : 

On  the  18th  of  July,  Reed,  who  was  a  member  of  the 
convention,  sent  an  account  of  its  doings  to  Dartmouth, 
and  purged  himself  of  the  guilt  of  disaffection.  His 
words  are:  "Some  resolutions  have  been  framed  by 
this  convention  as  expressive  of  the  sense  of  the  Pro 
vince,  which  I  hoped  to  have  been  able  to  have  sent 
you  by  this  conveyance.  Several  of  them,  I  make  no 
doubt,  will  sound  strangely  from  this  Province,  which 
has  hitherto  been  distinguished  for  its  moderation.  As 
I  had  an  opportunity  of  opposing  them  in  that  assembly, 
I  thought  it  my  duty  to  do  so,  but  it  was  in  vain " 
(Reed,  i.  xvi.).  Thus  it  appears  that  in  midsummer,  1774, 
Reed  took  part  in  America  in  the  general  uprising,  but 
reported  himself  to  the  British  minister  as  having  done 
his  "  duty"  by  opposing  all  that  was  most  spirited  in  its 
proceedings.  The  record  is  conclusive  as  to  his  interior 
sentiments  at  that  time.  To  have  been  even  more  mode 
rate  than  the  moderate  convention  which  left  the  direc 
tion  of  affairs  to  the  proprietary  assembly,  may  not  have 
been  dishonorable,  if  he  had  but  been  so  avowedly  ;  but 
to  wear  the  mask  of  patriotism,  and  yet  to  report  him 
self  to  the  British  Secretary  of  State  as  in  opposition  to 
the  patriots,  passes  the  bounds  of  honorable  conduct. 

5. 

All  this  time  Reed  used  the  strongest  language  of  the 
foremost  patriots,  and  professed  to  have  a  zeal  as  exube 
rant  as  that  of  the  most  impassioned.  Toward  the  end 
of  1774,  he  writes  to  Quincy  of  Boston,  then  in  Eng 
land  :  "  There  is  a  band  of  stanch,  chosen  sons  of  liberty, 
among  some  of  our  best  families,  who  are  backed  by  the 
body  of  the  people  in  such  a  manner  that  no  discon 
tented  spirit  dares  oppose  the  measures  necessary  for 


A   HISTORICAL   ESSAY.  11 

the  public  safety.  I  am  more  afraid  of  New  York.  I  wish 
you  would  endeavor  to  animate  them"  (Reed,  i.  86). 
Such  was  the  face  which  he  wore  to  the  advanced  patri 
ots,  among  whom  there  was  a  very  general  desire  to  make 
preparations  for  resistance  so  as  to  be  able  to  repel  force 
by  force.  Accordingly  the  Pennsylvania  convention, 
which  on  the  3d  of  January,  1776,  met  in  Philadelphia, 
elected  Joseph  Keed  their  president.  Again  yielding 
to  the  powerful  influence  exerted  in  Philadelphia  against 
the  necessary  measures  of  counteraction,  the  convention 
refused  to  take  any  steps  towards  military  preparations. 
At  once  Reed,  the  president  of  the  convention,  in  a  let 
ter  to  Lord  Dartmouth,  took  the  credit  of  the  defeat  in 
a  great  measure  to  himself,  as  follows :  "  I  hope  and  be 
lieve  I  have  already  been  instrumental  in  preventing 
some  measures  of  an  irritating  tendency.  It  had  been 
intended  to  take  some  steps  toward  arming  and  disci 
plining  the  province,  a  measure  which  I  opposed,  both 
publicly  and  privately  "  (Reed's  Reed,  i.  93,  94).  But 
he  did  not  stop  there.  He  accompanied  this  letter  with 
a  further  exposition  of  his  views  and  aspirations  to  his 
brother-in-law,  De  Berdt,  who  was  his  channel  of  com 
munication  with  Dartmouth :  "  I  was  compelled,  much 
against  my  inclination,  to  be  chairman  of  our  late  pro 
vincial  congress,  to  which  I  have  alluded  in  the  begin 
ning  of  my  letter.  This  circumstance  will  lead  him  to 
consider  me  in  the  light  of  a  factious,  turbulent  person, 
unworthy  his  further  notice,  and  improper  for  him  to 
correspond  with,  or  as  a  person  who  acts  uprightly  on 
mistaken  principles,  and  has  some  weight  and  influence 
with  the  province,  which  in  time  may  be  of  use  to  gov 
ernment  when  he  sees  his  error,  or  the  present  causes  of 
dissatisfaction  shall  be  removed,  and  whom,  upon  the 


12  JOSEPH   EEED  : 

whole,   Government  might  wish   to  be  on   tlieir  side" 
(Reed,  i.  97). 

These  procedures  are  in  conflict  with  the  requirements 
of  honor.  In  Philadelphia  Reed's  zeal  is  such  that  he 
is  made  President  of  the  Pennsylvania  Convention, 
while  he  secretly  lets  Dartmouth  know  that  his  influ 
ence  in  that  body  was  used  for  the  British  interest,  and 
he  gives  a  hint  that  he  is  getting  ready  to  become  an 
acquisition  of  the  British  government. 

6. 

In  the  early  summer  of  1775,  very  exaggerated  opin 
ions  prevailed  in  Philadelphia  of  the  strength  of  the 
New  England  army  around  Boston.  In  July  Reed  goes 
to  New  England  on  the  staff  of  Washington,  but  re 
mains  with  him  only  about  four  months,  as  his  military 
secretary.  In  that  time  he  greatly  won  the  confidence 
of  Washington,  toward  whom  he  professed  the  sincerest 
fidelity.  In  January,  1776,  Thomas  Paine  published  "  Com 
mon  Sense,"  and  Washington,  Greene,  John  Adams,  Gads- 
den,  Franklin,  Rush,  and  all  the  advanced  patriots  saw 
and  avowed  the  necessity,  the  rightfulness,  and  the  policy 
of  declaring  independence.  On  the  sixteenth  of  February, 
Reed  appeared  in  his  place  in  the  proprietary  assembly  of 
Pennsylvania,  and  took  the  oath  of  allegiance  to  George 
the  Third  in  its  full  force.  Franklin  avoided  taking  that 
oath,  by  declining  a  seat  in  the  assembly.  I  say  noth 
ing  in  praise  or  blame  of  Reed's  consenting  to  take  the 
oath  in  February,  1776;  but  his  efforts  in  the  legislature 
brought  no  good  to  the  popular  cause. 

7. 

The  course  of  events  proved  the  need  of  subverting 
the  proprietary  government  in  Pennsylvania.  Had 


A   HISTORICAL   ESSAY.  13 

Heed  remained  in  the  assembly  he  would  have  been 
compelled  to  have  chosen  his  side,  and  to  have  acted 
with  or  against  John  Adams,  on  the  question  whether 
Pennsylvania  should  take  up  a  government  of  its  own. 
The  responsibility  proved  too  much  for  his  nerves. 

He  therefore  escaped  from  the  dilemma  by  rejoining 
the  army,  and  he  himself  gives  as  his  reason:  "I  have 
been  much  induced  to  this  measure  by  observing  that 
this  province  will  be  a  great  scene  of  party  and  conten 
tion  this  summer  "  (Reed,  i.  190).  He  left  everybody 
in  Philadelphia  to  class  him  among  the  foremost  in  the 
band  of  patriots ;  and  when  Pennsylvania  for  the  first 
time  secured  its  adhesion  to  Congress  by  a  series  of 
measures  which  destroyed  the  proprietary  government 
and  substituted  a  government  by  the  people,  Reed,  after 
much  time  for  deliberation,  secretly  wrote  to  one  who 
had  been  a  warm  friend  to  the  proprietary  government 
and  an  opponent  to  the  Declaration  of  Independence : 
"  I  could  not  agree  in  most  of  the  changes  which  have 
been  made  in  our  province." 


On  the  4th  of  July,  Congress  made  that  declaration 
which  proclaimed  the  independence  of  the  United  States, 
and  thrilled  the  world  with  astonishment  and  delight 
by  the  prophecy  of  universal  freedom.  On  the  4th  of 
July,  Joseph  Reed,  the  American  Adjutant-General, 
after  having  been  in  the  camp  less  than  three  weeks, 
gives  us  a  glimpse  into  his  inner  mind,  and  the  class  of 
motives  by  which  he  was  ruled,  in  the  following  extract 
of  a  letter  to  a  member  of  Congress : 

"  With  an  army  of  force  before,  and  a  secret  one  behind,  we  stand 
on  a  point  of  land  with  six  thousand  old  troops  (if  a  year's  service  of 


14  JOSEPH   EEED  : 

about  half,  can  entitle  them  to  the  name),  and  about  fifteen  hundred 
new  levies  of  this  province,  many  disaffected  and  more  doubtful.  In 
this  situation  we  are  :  every  man  in  the  army,  from  the  general  to  the 
private  (acquainted  with  our  true  situation),  is  exceedingly  discouraged. 
Had  I  known  the  true  posture  of  affairs,  no  consideration  would  have 
tempted  me  to  have  taken  an  active  'part  of  this  scene  ;  and  this  sentiment 
is  universal"  (Gordon,  ii.  278). 

9. 

With  such  antecedents,  it  is  not  surprising  that  he  was 
one  of  the  channels  through  which  an  overture  for  a 
negotiation  for  submission  was  transmitted  to  congress. 
We  have  seen  that  in  February,  1775,  Reed,  through 
Dennis  De  Berdt,  recommended  himself  to  the  British 
minister  "  as  a  person  whom  upon  the  whole  government 
might  wish  to  be  upon  their  side."  From  that  same 
Dennis  De  Berdt,  Lord  Howe  brought  a  letter  to  Joseph 
Reed,  which,  as  we  know  from  Reed  himself,  though  it 
had  the  appearance  of  a  mere  private  letter,  "  was  not 
intended  merely  as  such."  Lord  Howe  was  anxious  for 
a  compromise,  or,  as  it  was  usually  called,  an  "  accommo 
dation"  with  America.  In  De  Berdt's  letter  to  Reed 
occurs  this  passage :  "  My  Lord  Howe  is  not  unacquainted 
with  your  name.  I  have  so  high  an  opinion  of  your 
abilities  and  honor,  and  have  had  such  repeated  instances 
of  your  friendship  and  affection,  that  every  thing  has 
been  said  by  me  that  you  can  desire  or  expect;  and  I 
have  not  a  doubt  if  a  treaty  or  parley  is  brought  about 
in  which  you  may  be  engaged,  every  degree  of  respect 
you  can  desire,  or  attention  you  can  wish,  will  be  shown 
you."  (Reed's  Reed,  i.  198.)  Fourteen  days  after  the 
declaration  of  independence,  Reed  was  ready  to  take  a 
part  in  "  a  parley  or  treaty "  with  the  Howes,  of  which 
the  avowed  object  was  to  lead  the  colonies  back  into 


A   HISTORICAL   ESSAY.  15 

a  state  of  dependence.  He  expressed  "  a  fear "  that 
congress  had  taken  its  decision  "  irrevocably."  It  is 
very  true,  subtle  lawyer  as  he  was,  that  he  couched  his 
offer  under  most  cautious  reservations ;  but  a  few  hours 
before  congress  voted  that  the  declaration  of  independ 
ence  should  be  engrossed  on  parchment  and  signed  by 
every  one  of  its  members,  he  wrote  to  one  who  had 
voted  against  independence :  "  My  principles  have  been 
much  misunderstood  if  they  were  supposed  to  militate 
against  reconciliation."  J.  Reed  to  R.  Morris,  18  July, 
1776,  in  Reed's  Reed,  i.  199.  He  expressed  a  hope  that 
the  overture  of  the  Howes  might  be  improved  into  a 
negotiation,  and  avowed  his  willingness  to  "  take  such  a 
post  as  my  situation  and  abilities  will  admit,  and  as  may 
be  directed"  (Reed,  i.  199).  Seven  days  after  the  vote 
of  congress  that  every  one  of  its  members  should  sign 
the  declaration  of  independence,  the  heart  of  Joseph 
Reed  was  not  with  them,  for  he  could  still  write :  "  I  am 
very  sorry  to  see  such  a  general  disinclination  even  to 
hear  of  accommodation"  (Reed's  Reed,  i.  209). 

10. 

While  the  members  of  congress  jointly  and  severally 
wrote  their  names  where  time  can  never  efface  them,  and 
where  they  shine  like  the  stars  on  our  beautiful  flag,  as 
they  pledged  their  lives,  their  fortunes,  and  their  sacred 
honor  to  the  cause  of  independence,  Reed,  who,  as  he 
said  of  himself,  "knew  too  much  of  their  situation  to 
be  very  sanguine,"  confessed  it  still  much  against  his 
inclination  that  Lord  Howe  would  not  lead  the  country 
back  to  a  state  of  dependence  by  conforming  his  written 
declarations  to  his  verbal  ones ;  and  he  predicted  that 
if  misfortunes  should  depreciate  the  currency  "  the  army 


16  JOSEPH    KEED  : 

is  gone."  (Eeed's  Reed,  i.  211,  215.)  Nor  is  it  an  answer 
to  say  that  Reed,  who  was  a  skilful  lawyer,  and  under 
stood  the  use  of  words  when  he  put  his  thoughts  on 
paper,  did  it  with  circumspection  and  reserve ;  and  still 
less  is  it  an  answer  to  say  that  in  the  company  of 
patriots  he  played  the  part  of  a  patriot.  Had  his 
language  and  conduct  been  harmonious  and  uniform, 
there  would  have  been  no  ground  for  charging  him  with 
duplicity ;  but  let  us  hasten  on. 

11. 

From  his  want  of  fixed  principles  and  his  despond 
ency,  it  is  natural  to  suppose  that  Reed  was  eager  to  get 
out  of  the  public  service,  and  it  was  so.  In  the  month 
of  September,  he  deliberately  resolved  to  throw  up  his 
commission  in  the  army ;  but  how  to  do  it  without  pub 
licly  branding  himself  with  dishonor,  was  not  easy  to  be 
devised.  A  high  officer  in  the  army  could  hardly  retire 
without  observation,  at  a  moment  when  the  army  was 
outnumbered  and  severely  pressed.  He  did  not  dare  to 
communicate  his  purpose  to  Washington ;  but  silently 
brooded  upon  it  in  his  own  mind,  until  at  last  he  roused 
himself  to  a  decisive  step.  (Force,  5th  Series,  ii.,  fols. 
826,  827.) 

A  committee  of  congress  had  been  at  head-quarters  to 
inquire  into  the  state  of  the  army.  He  let  them  come 
and  stay  and  finish  their  visit,  and  kept  his  own  coun 
sels.  When  they  were  gone,  on  the  first  of  October, 
Joseph  Reed,  without  consulting  Washington,  sent  to 
them  his  resignation  in  a  long  letter,  of  which  the  sub 
stance  is,  that  he  demanded  to  be  relieved,  and,  to  use 
his  own  words,  "  the  sooner  the  better "  (Force,  v.  ii., 
8 2 6-' 7).  But  this  letter  is  otherwise  noteworthy  as  a 


A   HISTORICAL    ESSAY.  17 

proof  of  his  insincerity.  He  will  have  it,  on  the  one 
hand,  that  he  "  resigns  with  a  single  eye  to  the  public 
service  and  welfare ;"  and  yet  he  confesses  that  General 
Washington  doubtless  would  think  the  public  interest 
required  him  to  remain.  The  two  statements  are  in 
manifest  contradiction  ;  and  he  knew  it. 

12. 

Danger  grew  nearer  and  nearer.  The  committee  of 
congress  and  congress  itself  took  no  notice  whatever 
of  his  application  to  retire ;  but  we  know  from  Joseph 
Reed  himself  that  every  succeeding  circumstance  had 
confirmed  him  in  his  intention  to  resign  his  office  of  Ad 
jutant-General.  The  service  of  the  United  States  offered 
at  that  time  no  flattering  emoluments,  no  career  that 
could  tempt  ambition.  There  was  nothing  that  could 
bind  an  officer  to  the  service  but  zeal  for  the  cause  or  a 
love  of  fame.  On  the  llth  of  October,  Joseph  E-eed 
wrote  to  his  wife :  u  You  ask  me  what  I  propose  to  do  ? 
It  is  a  difficult  question  to  answer.  My  idea  is  shortly 
this,  that  if  France  or  some  other  foreign  power  does 
not  interfere,  or  some  feuds  arise  among  the  enemy's 
troops,  we  shall  not  be  able  to  stand  next  spring.  *  *  * 
But  if  the  enemy  should  make  a  vigorous  push,  I  would 
not  answer  for  our  success  at  any  time.  *  *  *  I  have 
not  the  least  desire  to  sacrifice  you  and  them  [my  dear 
children]  to  fame.  *  *  *  My  estate  is  no  object  of 
confiscation,  my  rank  is  not  so  high  as  to  make  me  an 
example.  *  *  *  From  what  I  can  learn  from  Phila 
delphia,  there  is  a  considerable  party  for  absolute  and 
unconditional  submission.  *  *  *  A  person  must  be 
in  the  secret  to  know  the  worst  of  our  affairs"  (Heed,  i. 
243). 


18  JOSEPH    EEED  I 

13. 

There  remained,  indeed,  very  little  to  rely  upon  except 
the  wisdom,  decision,  and  fortitude  of  Washington.  On 

'  i  O 

the  21st  of  November,  Reed  avowed  his  want  of  con 
fidence  in  Washington,  and  complained  of  him  as  hav 
ing  an  indecisive  mind,  such  as  "  is  one  of  the  greatest 
misfortunes  that  can  befall  an  army ;"  and  he  wrote  that 
he  had  "  often  lamented  it  this  campaign  "  (Lee's  Me 
moirs,  178,  179  ;  Moore's  Treason  of  Lee,  44-46). 

14. 

"Washington  was  a  man  bent  on  maintaining  inde 
pendence  by  persevering  efforts  in  the  field  ;  Lee  was  a 
man  bent  on  surrendering  independence  by  negotiations 
with  the  British  commissioners.  Reed  seized  the  oppor 
tunity  of  his  infidelity  to  Washington  to  make  his  con 
fidential  relations  with  Lee  more  close  and  intimate  than 
ever  (Lee's  Memoirs,  179). 

15. 

We  have  arrived  at  the  time  when  the  intentions  of 
Reed  were  openly  betrayed.  Washington  was  at  New 
ark,  environed  by  difficulties.  It  was  the  darkest  hour 
of  the  retreat  through  the  Jerseys.  Bad  as  the  state  of 
affairs  was  when  Reed  desponded  in  October,  and  at 
tempted  to  leave  the  army,  things  had  grown  worse,  very 
much  worse,  and  there  was  need  of  extraordinary  and 
exemplary  fortitude  and  energy  on  the  part  of  officers  to 
call  out  the  strength  of  New  Jersey  and  of  Pennsylvania. 
Mifflin  and  Reed  were  selected  to  make  impassioned 
appeals  and  earnest  solicitations  :  the  former  to  the  peo 
ple  of  Pennsylvania;  the  latter,  a  native  of  Trenton,  to 
the  legislature  of  New  Jersey.  Mifflin  executed  the 
office  intrusted  to  him  undauntedly,  perseveringly,  and 


A   HISTORICAL    ESSAY.  19 

successfully.  Reed  was  sent  on  the  23d  or  the  24th  of 
November,  that  is,  two  days  or  three  after  his  avowal 
of  want  of  confidence  in  Washington,  with  a  letter, 
dated  the  23d  of  November,  to  the  governor  and  legis 
lature  of  New  Jersey,  saying :  "  The  critical  situation 
of  our  affairs,  and  the  movements  of  the  enemy,  make 
some  further  and  immediate  exertions  absolutely  neces 
sary  ;"  and  the  governor  was  referred  to  Reed,  who  as 
Adjutant- General  was  in  the  secret  of  the  weakness  of 
the  army,  to  give  him  the  particulars.  Reed  arrived  at 
Burlington  on  or  about  the  25th,  where  he  found  his 
wife  and  family.  On  the  28th,  the  day  on  which  Wash 
ington  was  forced  to  retreat  from  Newark,  without  the 
knowledge  and  against  the  expectation  of  his  chief,  and 
in  betrayal  of  the  trust  reposed  in  him,  he  renounced 
the  service.  On  the  1st  of  October  he  had  resigned 
his  office  by  letter,  and  had  not  succeeded,  his  commu 
nication  receiving  no  answer  or  notice.  This  time  he 
took  the  very  unusual  and  very  effectual  course  of  get 
ting  rid  of  his  commission,  by  inclosing  the  instrument 
itself  to  congress.  He  had  been  sent  from  camp  on  a 
special  duty  in  that  hour  which  "  tried  men's  souls '' — 
in  that  hour  which  "  tried  men's  souls  "  more  than  any 
former  one ;  and  he  seized  the  moment  of  his  country's 
most  desperate  weakness,  and  his  own  absence  from 
camp  on  special  and  most  important  public  duty,  to 
retire  abruptly  and  absolutely  from  the  service. 

Here  is  a  literal  copy  of  his  letter  of  resignation, 
taken  from  the  files  of  Congress,  to  which  it  went  in 
the  due  course  of  business,  and  where  it  has  been  pre 
served  to  the  present  time : 

"  SIR — Near  three  Months  ago  I  laid  before  the  Committee  of 
Hon.  Congress  appointed  to  form  and  regulate  the  New  Army, 


20  JOSEPH    KEED  I 

my  Intentions  of  relinquishing  the  Office  of  Adjutant-General  at  the 
Close  of  the  Campaign.  The  Reasons  I  then  assigned,  and  which 
I  should  intrude  upon  your  Time  to  repeat,  appeared  to  me  so 
weighty,  that  I  conceived  it  a  Duty  to  the  Publick  and  myself  to 
represent  them  in  the  earliest  and  fullest  manner. 

"  As  the  season  will  not  admit  of  further  military  Operations 
(unless  the  Enemy  should  attempt  an  Incursion  into  this  Province 
to  harass  and  distress  us,  in  which  Case  1  shall  most  cheerfully 
devote  myself  to  any  farther  service),  I  beg  Leave  to  inclose  the 
Commission,  with  the  highest  sense  and  warmest  Acknowledg 
ments  of  the  Favor  done  me — and  am, 

"  Sir,  your  most  obdt.  & 

"  very  Hbble.  Servt., 

"Jos.  REED. 

11  BURLINGTON,  November  28,  1776. 
"  To  the  Hon.  John  Hancock,  Esq., 
"  Board  of  the  Hon.  Continental  Congress,  Philadelphia." 

On  this  letter  the  first  thing  to  be  remarked  is  its 
inexactness  as  to  time.  Instead  of  having  sent  his 
resignation  to  the  committee  of  congress  "  near  three 

~  o 

months  ago,"  it  was  less  than  two.  Next,  is  his  erro 
neous  statement  of  the  time  at  which  he  had  wished  his 
first  of  October  resignation  to  take  effect ;  he  now  dares 

o  / 

to  say  it  was  to  have  been  "at  the  close  of  the  cam 
paign,"  when,  in  truth,  he  had  written,  "  the  sooner  the 
better."  Further,  the  excuse  which  he  feigns  is  worthy 
of  animadversion.  He  was  the  Adjutant-General  of 
the  army,  knew  that  Washington  was  vainly  struggling 
to  make  a  stand  at  Newark ;  that  he  was  seeking  to 
draw  to  his  own  force  the  militia  of  New  Jersey,  the 
detachment  under  Lee,  such  aid  as  congress  could 
stand,  such  aid  as  Mifflin  could  draw  from  Pennsylvania, 
and  such  aid  as  could  be  spared  from  the  northern 
army ;  and  he  was  himself  sent,  according  to  Washing 
ton's  words,  on  special  duty,  "  on  the  retreat,  to  rouse 


A   HISTORICAL   ESSAY.  21 

and  animate  the  assembly  of  New  Jersey  to  spirited 
measures  for  our  support;"  and  yet  he  pretends  that 
he  resigns  because  the  season  admits  "  no  further 
military  operations." 

Meantime  a  letter  from  General  Lee  to  Joseph  Reed 
arrived  at  head-quarters,  and,  being  addressed  to  the 
Adjutant-General,  was  opened  as  a  public  letter.  In 
that  letter  occurred  these  words:  "My  Dear  Reed — I 
received  your  most  obliging,  flattering  letter ;  lament 
with  you  that  fatal  indecision  of  mind  which  in  war  is 
a  much  greater  disqualification  than  stupidity,  or  even 
want  of  personal  courage.  Accident  may  put  a  decisive 
blunderer  in  the  right ;  but  eternal  defeat  and  miscarriage 
must  attend  the  man  of  the  best  parts  if  cursed  with 
indecision  "  (Lee  to  Reed,  November  24, 1776,  in  Force, 
iii.,  831).  Some  time  in  the  night  between  the  1st  and 
2d  of  December,  Reed  received  this  letter  of  Lee,  in 
closed  in  the  following  one  from  General  Washington : 

"BRUNSWICK,  November  30,  1776. 

"  DEAR  SIR  : — The  inclosed  was  put  into  my  hands  by  an  express  from 
the  White  Plains.  Having  no  idea  of  its  being  a  private  letter,  much 
less  suspecting  the  tendency  of  the  correspondence,  I  opened  it,  as  I 
had  done  all  other  letters  to  you  from  the  same  place  and  Peeksldll, 
upon  the  business  of  your  office,  as  I  conceived  and  found  them  to  be. 

"  This,  as  it  is  truth,  must  be  my  excuse  for  seeing  the  contents  of 
a  letter  which  neither  inclination  or  intention  would  have  prompted 
me  to. 

"  I  thank  you  for  the  trouble  and  fatigue  you  have  undergone  in  your 
journey  to  Burlington,  and  sincerely  wish  that  your  labors  may  be 
crowned  with  the  desired  success.  My  best  respects  to  Mrs.  Reed. 

"  I  am,  dear  sir,  your  most  obedient  servant, 

"GEO.  WASHINGTON. 
"To  JOSEPH  REED,  Esq.,  Adjutant-General,  Burlington." 

(Force,  iii.  921.) 


22  JOSEPH   EEED  : 

The  words  of  Washington  are  seemingly  mild,  and 
even  apologetic,  but  in  form  and  in  substance  they  con 
vey,  as  others  have  said,  the  coldest  and  most  cutting 
rebuke,  from  which  Reed  did  not  recover  for  many 
months,  if  indeed  he  ever  fully  recovered.  In  this  letter 
Washington  abstains  from  his  former  usual  language  of 
friendship,  avows  that  he  is  aware  of  Reed's  intrigue 
with  Lee,  and,  moreover,  reminds  Reed  of  the  special 
and  as  yet  unfulfilled  duty  intrusted  to  him.  With 
such  reproof  ringing  in  his  ears,  and  with  a  reminder  of 
the  censure  pronounced  on  officers  who  slunk  away  from 
the  army  in  time  of  danger,  Reed,  on  the  second  of  De 
cember,  wrote  once  more  to  the  President  of  Congress. 
Of  this  letter  the  following  is  an  exact  copy  from  the 
archives  of  Congress : 

"BURLINGTON,  December  2,  1776. 

"  SIR  : — When  I  did  myself  the  Honour  of  addressing  you  on  the  30th 
ult.  I  had  not  the  least  Idea  that  the  Enemy  would  at  this  Season 
attempt  a  Progress  thro  the  Country — It  seems  but  too  probable  that  I 
was  mistaken. — I  therefore  beg  Leave  to  retract  the  Resignation  I  then 
made  &  as  soon  as  I  have  disposed  of  Mrs.  Heed  &  my  children  will 
attend  my  Office  in  the  Army  untill  a  Successor  is  appointed  or  Opera 
tions  shall  cease  beyond  all  Doubt. 

"  Flattering  myself  that  an  uninterrupted  Attention  for  Six  Months  & 
my  conduct  during  that  Time  will  incline  you  to  the  most  favourable 
Construction  of  this  Measure  which  proceeded'from  our  unacquaintance 
with  the  State  of  Things,  I  am 

"With  great  Respect,  Sir, 

"  Your  most  obed.  &  very 
"Hbble.  Serv*. 

"Jos.   REED." 

On  this  letter  there  is  again  occasion  to  observe  Reed's 
want  of  exactness  and  truth.  His  letter  to  Congress 
was  of  the  28th  of  November,  and  he  says  it  was  of  the 


A   HISTORICAL   ESSAY.  23 

30th.  Then  as  to  the  reason  lie  assigns  for  his  resigna 
tion  and  its  withdrawal,  neither  the  one  nor  the  other 
has  any  foundation  in  fact,  but  is  directly  contrary  to  it. 
The  enemy  were  pursuing  Washington  then,  just  as  they 
were  when  Heed  was  dispatched  from  the  camp  to  get 
support  from  New  Jersey,  and  no  more.  He  threw  up 
his  commission  when  every  man's  service  was  needed 
most,  and  when  he  himself  was  on  special  duty,  which 
was  as  yet  unperformed,  without  the  knowledge  and 
against  the  expectations  of  his  superior.  He  recalls  his 
resignation  only  to  save  himself  from  greater  reproach 
than  he  could  have  borne,  and  if  he  escaped  opprobrium 
he  did  so  by  false  pretences. 

16. 

Reed's  letter  recalling  his  commission  was  received 
and  read  in  Congress  on  the  third  day  of  December.  A 
patriot  father,  who  loves  his  wife  and  children,  would 
naturally  place  them  in  a  time  of  danger  where  he  could 
most  certainly  rejoin  them  without  changing  sides.  Eeed 
writes  on  the  second  that  he  will  attend  to  his  office 
"  as  soon  as  I  have  disposed  of  Mrs.  Heed  and  my  chil 
dren."  It  was  a  matter  of  import  in  whose  hands  he 
would  leave  them,  and  he  had  a  choice.  Had  he  sent 
his  wife  and  children  in  the  ferry-boat  across  the  river 
from  Burlington  to  the  Pennsylvania  side,  they  would 
have  been  among  the  patriots.  He  chose  to  send  Mrs. 
Eeed  and  her  family  into  a  part  of  New  Jersey  where 
they  remained,  as  William  B.  Reed  expresses  it,  "  lite 
rally  in  the  possession  of  the  enemy  "  (Life  of  E.  Reed, 
255).  Thus  in  December,  1776,  Joseph  Reed,  having 
his  choice  of  a  place  of  refuge,  placed,  to  use  his  own 


24  JOSEPH   HEED  I 

words,  "  a  wife  and  four  children  in  the  enemy's  hands  " 
(Reed's  Reed,  i.  273). 

17. 

So  soon  as  he  had  thus  disposed  of  his  wife  and  chil 
dren,  as  hostages  to  the  British,  Reed  repaired  to  the  camp 
of  Washington,  and  crossed  the  Delaware  with  the  Ame 
rican  army.  In  the  camp  of  Washington,  beyond  the 
Delaware,  Joseph  Reed,  speaking*  to  an  officer  respect 
ing  American  affairs  in  general,  said  that  appearances 
were  very  gloomy  and  unfavorable.  To  General  Phile 
mon  Dickinson,  whom  he  found  in  command  of  the 
militia  of  New  Jersey,  Reed,  who  had  been  deputed  by 
Washington  to  Burlington  to  animate  the  people  of 
New  Jersey  and  gain  their  aid  to  the  cause,  said  that 
he  and  several  others  of  Dickinson's  friends  were  sur 
prised  at  seeing  him  there.  This  is  known  from  the 
testimony  of  Dickinson  himself,  a  witness  unimpeach 
able  and  unimpeached,  against  whose  credibility  the 
most  that  has  been  said  is,  that  he  was  closely  connected 
with  a  man  who  was  not  a  friend  to  Reed  (Cadwal- 
ader's  Reply,  27,  28). 

18. 

Reed  soon  left  Washington's  camp,  for  what  reason  is 
not  certainly  known.  The  knowledge  that  his  intrigue 
with  Lee  had  been  discovered  may  have  made  his  pres 
ence  in  the  family  of  the  Commander-in-Chief  too  uncom 
fortable  to  him,  or  he  may  have  wished  a  greater  freedom 
of  motion  than  he  could  hope  for  under  the  eye  of 
Washington.  His  pretence  that  he  was  specially  sent 
by  General  Washington  for  the  express  purpose  of  as 
sisting  General  Cadwalader  is  discredited  by  Cadwal- 
ader,  and  still  more  by  Reed's  own  conduct  in  being 


A   HISTORICAL    ESSAY.  2o 

almost  constantly  absent  from  Bristol,  and  conducting 
himself  as  an  officer  at  large.  His  despondency  followed 
him  from  head-quarters  to  the  camp  at  Bristol,  and  he 
said  to  the  commander  of  that  post,  whom  he  pretends 
he  was  commissioned  to  assist,  "  I  do  not  understand  fol 
lowing  the  wretched  remains  of  a  broken  army."  Cad- 
walader  was  a  man  of  truth  and  honor ;  his  testimony 
on  this  occasion  is  supported  by  Heed's  conduct,  and  by 
witnesses  to  similar  words  ;  and  it  must  be  received  as 
true  beyond  a  question. 

19. 

In  his  protracted  absence  from  head-quarters,  Reed 
appears  to  have  passed  but  little  of  his  time  at  the  camp 
at  Bristol.  On  the  19th  he  passed  the  night  at  Bur 
lington,  and  on  the  20th  he,  without  the  knowledge 
of  Caclwalader,  sent  a  flag  of  truce  of  his  own  to  Colonel 
Donop,  requesting  an  interview  with  him  on  the  next 
day.  On  this  much  controverted  subject  it  is  best  to 
consider  only  that  which  is  certain  and  established. 
Reed  was  an  officer  without  any  command  whatever ; 
and  though,  as  an  individual,  he  may  have  wished  to 
see  Donop,  he  had  no  authority  whatever  to  consult  him 
on  public  affairs,  or  to  settle  with  him  any  question  of 
neutralization.  Further,  Reed  said  that  he  sent  the 
flag  on  the  application  of  some  of  the  inhabitants  of 
Burlington;  but  Daniel  Ellis,  his  witness,  fails  to  es 
tablish  the  assertion,  saying  only,  "Joseph  Reed  was 
applied  to  by  some  of  the  inhabitants,  as  this  deponent 
understood;"  and  the  affidavit  of  Bowes  Reed  is  still 
more  rambling,  incoherent,  and  untrustworthy,  contain 
ing  errors  positively  asserted,  and  then  softened  by  the 
clause,  "  as  this  deponent  was  then  informed."  Further, 


26  JOSEPH   EEED  : 

the  inhabitants  of  Burlington  never  owned  that  the  flag 
was  sent  at  their  request,  but,  as  far  as  there  is  any 
evidence  on  the  subject,  they  denied  it,  and  represented 
it,  as  with  Reed,  a  personal  affair.  Further,  in  his  mes 
sage  to  Donop,  he  pretends  to  write  under  the  authority 
of  Washington  ;  and  that  assertion  was  false.  He  bad 
no  authority  whatever  from  Washington  to  send  the 
request  for  an  interview ;  and  he  wrote,  as  he  was  forced 
to  confess,  of  his  own  motion,  without  the  authority  of 
any  one  in  command.  What  adjutant-general  ever  did 
the  like  ?  Further,  the  messenger  by  whom  he  sent  the 
flag  of  truce  was,  to  say  the  least,  a  doubtful  character. 
Cadwalader,  in  1783,  writes  of  him:  "I  have  ample 
proof  of  Mr.  Ellis's  attachment  to  the  enemy,  which  may 
be  produced,  if  necessary"  (Cadwalader,  37);  and  this 
statement,  as  far  as  I  can  find,  was  not  denied  for  more 
than  ninety-three  years,  when  no  other  exculpatory  evi 
dence  is  given  than  that  the  property  of  Ellis  had  not 
been  confiscated,  which  proves  nothing  as  to  his  rela 
tions  in  1776.  Further,  the  ostensible  reason  for  meet 
ing  was  said  by  Reed  to  be  a  desire  to  declare  Burling 
ton  neutral,  and  Donop  did  not  think  this  neutralization 
could  be  the  real  purpose  of  the  flag  of  truce.  Further, 
Donop  refused  to  meet  Reed,  as  he  desired,  and  Reed 
suppressed  this  answer;  and  when,  some  years  after, 
he  gave  an  account  of  it,  he  and  his  brother,  Bowes 
Reed,  completely  falsified  it,  making  the  proposition 
for  a  conference  come,  in  the  first  instance,  from  Donop 
himself,  when  Reed  had  applied  for  a  conference,  and 
Donop  had  in  the  first  instance  refused  it.  Further,  Donop 
reported  the  matter  to  his  superior  officer ;  and  when  time 
enough  had  passed  for  the  British  Major-Gen eral  to  re 
ceive  and  answer  the  report,  Donop  wrote  again,  as  we 


A    HISTORICAL    ESSAY.  27 

shall  see,  offering  to  meet  Reed  at  any  time  and  place 
he  might  appoint.  Reed,  as  though  the  matter  was  a 
private  concern  of  his  own,  made  no  report  of  it  to  Cad- 
walader  or  to  Washington. 

20. 

Donop's  refusal  to  hold  a  conference  with  Eeed  was 
written  on  the  20th  of  December.  Under  date  of 
the  21st  the  following  passage  occurs  in  the  Don  op 
journal : 

"  Der  OberstReed,  der  neulich  eine  Protection  erhalten, 
seye  dem  General  Mifflin  entgegen  gekommen,  und  habe 
demselben  declarirt,  dass  er  nicht  gesonnen  sey  weiteres 
zu  dienen,  worauf  ihm  Mifflin  sehr  hart  begegnete  und 
ihm  sogar  einen  dem  Rascal  geheissen  habe ;"  which, 
being  literally  rendered,  is :  "  Colonel  Reed,  who  lately 
received  a  Protection,  is  said  to  have  gone  up  to  General 
Mifflin,  and  declared  to  him  that  he  was  not  disposed  to 
serve  any  longer,  upon  which  Mifflin  met  him  very 
harshly,  and  even  called  him  a  damned  rascal."  A 
question  is  raised  whether  the  clause,  "  who  lately 
received  a  protection/'  is  a  descriptive  clause  inci 
dentally  inserted  by  the  writer  of  the  diary,  or  whether 
it  forms  a  part  of  the  rumor.  On  this  point  I  had  the 
benefit  of  the  opinion  of  one  of  the  ablest  Germans  of  my 
acquaintance — a  scholar  who  joins  to  the  highest  culture 
received  in  the  land  of  his  birth  an  admirable  degree 
of  knowledge  of  our  language  and  history ;  and  he 
assured  me  that  it  is  beyond  a  doubt  a  descriptive  clause 
to  distinguish  the  person  to  whom  the  rumor  relates ;  and 
having  this  highest  authority,  I  said  that  "  the  statement 
though  made  incidentally  is  positive  and  unqualified." 


28  JOSEPH   REED  : 

The  "President's"  grandson  insists  that  the  clause  forms  a 
part  of  the  rumor  ;  but  in  this  he  can  hardly  be  sincere, 
for,  to  give  his  interpretation  a  plausible  appearance,  he 
is  obliged  to  mistranslate  the  passage,  and  escapes  instant 
detection  only  by  keeping  the  original  out  of  sight.  The 
words  are :  "  Der  Oberst  Reed,  der  neulicheine  Protection 
erhalten,  seye,"  <fec.,  which,  correctly  rendered,  is :  "  Col 
onel  Reed,  who  lately  received  a  protection,  is  said  to," 
&c. ;  but  the  "  President's  "  grandson  mistranslates :  "The 
Colonel  Reed  having  received  a  protection,  had,"  &c 
The  error  is  glaring,  as  any  German  who  knows  Eng 
lish  may  see. 

But  suppose  for  a  moment  the  grandson's  interpreta 
tion  to  be  correct,  then  it  follows  that  on  the  21st  of 
December,  1776,  Reed's  treachery  was  so  notorious,  that 
the  German  officers  at  their  camp-fires  amused  them 
selves  with  stories  about  the  enmity  of  Mifflin  to  Reed, 
and  about  Reed's  having  provided  himself  with  a  pro 
tection  ;  and  one  part  of  the  story,  that  Mifflin  thought 
meanly  of  Reed,  was  unquestionably  true. 

But  I  believe  the  clause  to  be  descriptive ;  as  if  one 
had  reported  in  the  last  century:  "William  Pitt,  who 
lately  increased  his  debts,  is  said  to  be  about  to  marry 
a  peer's  daughter."  The  clause,  "  who  lately  increased 
his  debts,"  is  a  descriptive  clause.  If  it  be  asked  why 
I  did  not  insert  the  Donop  statement  in  the  text  of  my 
history,  my  answer  is,  because  it  wants  the  mention  of 
time  and  place  for  which  I  habitually  inquire ;  and  as 
circumstantiality  is  wanting,  there  may  be  room  to  ask 
whether  the  statement  is  wholly  true,  or  only  partially 
true,  or  founded  in  mistake.  And  which  of  these  three 
options  is  most  fit  to  be  chosen  must  rest  on  collateral 


A   HISTORICAL   ESSAY.  29 

evidence.*     My  charge  extends  no  further  than  that  the 
u  President  "  meditated  defection. 

21. 

From  the  moment  that  the  British  extended  their 
line  of  posts  along  the  Delaware,  Washington  resolved 
on  an  attack  upon  Trenton.  The  British  commander 
heard  of  it ;  common  rumor  repeated  it  in  Trenton ; 
patriots  of  Philadelphia  knew  it  as  early  at  least  as  the 
18th ;  it  was  announced  in  a  letter  by  Greene  on  the 
19th;  Robert  Morris  on  the  21st  wrote  officially  about 
it  to  the  American  commissioners  at  Paris.  It  is  impos 
sible  that  Reed  should  not  have  known  it,  for  nothing 
was  kept  secret  but  the  hour  at  which  it  was  to  take 
place.  On  the  22d  he  writes  a  letter  of  six  pages  to 
Washington,  very  skilfully  drawn,  advises  him  to  do 
what  he  must  have  known  Washington  was  preparing 
to  do,  and  makes  his  letter  such  as  he  might  be  able  to 
show  for  his  justification  under  any  possible  contingency. 
He  had  written  to  Lee  of  Washington's  indecision,  and 
he  comes  upon  this  point  in  the  letter.  He  had  com 
plained  of  Washington  as  too  much  influenced  by  the 
advice  of  Greene ;  he  now  renews  the  caution  against 
such  advice,  at  a  time  when  Greene's  advice  could  not 
but  have  been  altogether  on  the  right  side.  He  had 
revealed  to  Cadwalader  and  others  the  unmanly  despond 
ency  which  had  marked  all  his  conduct  for  more  than 
three  months ;  he  now,  as  if  intending  that  his  retire 
ment  should  create  no  surprise,  avows  to  Washington 

*  William  B.  Reed  writes,  page  94  of  his  pamphlet :  "  A  protection 
was  never  granted  without  an  antecedent  oath."  This  shows  how 
loosely  he  writes.  The  Howes  under  their  proclamation  required  no 
oath. 


30  JOSEPH    KEED  : 

his  dejection,  and  writes:  "Some  enterprise  must  be 
undertaken  in  our  present  circumstances,  or  we  must 
give  up  the  cause.  Unless  some  more  favorable  appear 
ance  attends  our  arms,  the  militia  officers  here  will  take 
benefit  from  it  [namely,  the  proclamation  of  the  Howes]. 
I  will  not  disguise  my  own  sentiments,  that  our  cause  is 
desperate  and  liopeless,  if  we  do  not  take  the  opportunity 
of  the  collection  of  troops  at  present  to  strike  some 
stroke."  (Reed's  Reed,  i.  272.) 

Some  hours  after  writing  this  letter,  Joseph  Reed 
rode  from  Bristol  to  head-quarters  in  Newtown.  In  the 
ride  he  had  as  his  companion  Benjamin  Rush,  one  of  the 
members  of  congress  from  Pennsylvania,  and  we  get 
glimpses  into  the  mind  of  Reed  on  the  day  of  his  writ 
ing  this  letter,  through  his  talk  to  this  companion  of  his 
travel.  The  conversation  turned  upon  the  state  of  mil 
itary  affairs.  Reed  praised  the  bravery  of  the  British 
troops,  and  spoke  contemptuously  of  the  cowardice  of 
the  Americans.  He  said  that  "  the  author  of  the  Farm 
er's  letters  had  begun  an  opposition  to  Great  Britain 
which  we  have  not  strength  to  finish."  When  Rush 
lamented  that  a  gentleman  of  his  acquaintance  had  sub 
mitted  to  the  enemy,  Reed  said,  that  "  he  had  acted 
properly,  and  that  a  man  who  had  a  family  did  right  to 
take  that  care  of  them."  (Cadwalader's  Reply,  28,  29.) 

From  such  convincing  testimony  there  is  no  escape 
but  by  impeaching  the  veracity  of  Rush.  The  first 
question  to  be  asked  relates  to  circumstances  of  time 
and  place.  Was  Rush  at  Bristol,  so  that  he  might  have 
been  Reed's  companion  ?  As  a  member  of  congress, 
Rush  might  have  been  looked  for  in  Baltimore,  but  we 
know  that  on  the  20th  of  December  he  was  in  Phila 
delphia  on  his  way  to  Bristol,  and  that  on  the  21st  he 


A    HISTORICAL    ESSAY.  31 

was  at  Bristol  (Force,  iii.  1512),  Justin  time  to  be  Reed's 
companion  on  the  excursion  of  the  22d.  Next,  we  must 
consider  the  character  of  the  evidence  in  itself;  and  if  the 
substance  of  the  testimony  of  Rush  is  examined,  the  words 
attributed  to  Reed  will  be  found  to  tally  exactly  with 
what  we  know  to  have  been  his  opinions  and  intentions, 
as  expressed  in  the  letter  to  his  wife  of  the  eleventh  of 
the  previous  October,  and  in  his  conversations  with  Gen 
erals  Dickinson  and  Cadwalader. 

So  far,  then,  the  testimony  is  fully  supported.  It  is 
glaringly  unbecoming  in  the  grandson  of  the  "  Presi 
dent"  to  attempt  to  impugn  the  character  of  Rush  for 
veracity.  Reed  took  the  oath  of  allegiance  to  George 
the  Third,  seven  weeks  at  least  after  Rush  had  declared 
himself  unequivocally  and  irrevocably  for  independence. 
On  the  second  of  August,  1776,  Rush  signed  the  Decla 
ration  of  Independence,  and  kept  with  truth  and  firm 
ness  the  pledge  which  he  then  gave  of  life,  fortune,  and 
sacred  honor ;  while  Joseph  Reed,  a  high  officer  in  the 
American  army,  by  his  own  account,  "  hesitated  about 
his  duty,"  and  was  sighing  for  "  conciliation,"  "  accom 
modation,"  and  a  return  to  a  state  of  dependence.  It  is 
true  that  they  both  at  one  time  called  in  question  the 
military  ability  of  Washington :  it  is  also  true  that 
Washington  forgave  them  both ;  Reed,  as  we  shall  see, 
on  false  asseverations ;  Rush,  on  a  full  knowledge  of  the 
worst.  I  once  had  in  my  custody  fragments  of  diaries 
and  auto-biographical  sketches  of  Rush,  written  at  various 
periods  of  his  life,  as  well  as  two  bound  volumes  of  his 
most  private  correspondence,  so  that  I  was  able  to 
study  his  character  thoroughly.  He  did  not  deny  his 
faults,  but  claimed  to  "  aim  well."  The  key  to  his  cha 
racter  is,  that  he  was  of  an  impatient  and  impulsive 


32  JOSEPH   REED  : 

nature,  fond  of  quick  decision  and  quick  action,  and 
in  consequence  capable,  under  sudden  excitement,  of 
writing  in  terms  of  extravagance,  or  judging  character, 
for  the  moment,  unfairly.  As  a  physician  he  inclined  to 
powerful  remedies  and  the  free  use  of  the  lancet,  and  in 
public  life  he  was  eager  for  drastic  measures,  so  that 
he  sometimes  fell  into  controversy  with  men  of  a  calmer 
temperament  than  his  own.  But  the  tone  of  his  own 
opinions  is  always  the  same.  From  his  early  life  to  his 
old  age,  his  patriotism  could  not  be  doubted,  and  when 
ever  a  question  regarding  freedom  arose  he  was  sure  to 
take  the  side  of  freedom.  As  he  was  one  of  the  first  to 
speak  for  independence,  he  was  one  of  the  first,  publicly 
as  well  as  privately,  to  speak  for  the  abolition  of  slavery, 
and  to  treat  the  colored  people  as  fellow-men  and  fellow- 
citizens  ;  and  to  his  last  breath  he  was  devoted  to  those 
principles  of  Jefferson  which  were  humane  and  liberal. 
The  profession  of  medicine,  no  less  than  that  of  war,  has 
its  bead-roll  of  heroes  who  have  defied  death  in  the  dis 
charge  of  duty.  When  an  infectious  pestilence,  raging 
in  Philadelphia,  rapidly  swept  nearly  four  thousand  to 
the  grave,  Rush  despised  every  consideration  of  personal 
safety,  and  was  so  true  day  and  night  to  his  patients 
that  it  was  said  of  him  in  Europe :  "  Not  Philadelphia 
alone  but  mankind  should  raise  to  him  a  statue."  I  do 
not  believe,  nor  will  my  readers  believe,  that  that  man 
was  capable  of  deliberately  bearing  false  witness  against 
another.  It  is  established  then,  that,  on  the  22d,  Joseph 
Reed  did  not  refrain  from  avowing  that  a  man  who  had 
a  family  did  right  to  take  care  of  them  by  submitting  to 

British  rule. 

22. 

On  Christmas-eve,  Reed,  who  pretends  he  was  sent 


A    HISTORICAL    ESSAY.  33 

to  Bristol  to  be  the  virtual  commander  at  that  post, 
rode  as  a  simple  messenger  to  Philadelphia,  without  au 
thority  from  Washington  to  deliver  any  message  what 
ever.  There  can  be  no  pretext  that  Reed  should  have 
gone  to  Philadelphia,  though  he  obtained  Cadwalader's 
consent  to  the  journey.  Washington  took  care  to  send 
his  own  precise  and  full  orders  to  Putnam  by  his  own 
messenger  and  at  his  own  time  (Washington  to  Putnam, 
25  Dec.,  in  Force,  iii.  1420).  Reed,  having  found  that 
Philadelphia  was,  to  use  his  own  words,  "  near  an  insur 
rection  in  favor  of  the  British,"  returned  to  Bristol. 
We  have  seen  that  on  the  19th  of  December,  Reed, 
making  use  of  a  flag  of  truce,  was  at  Burlington,  passed 
a  night  there  and  remained  on  the  20th,  till  he  received 
from  Donop  a  refusal  to  meet  him  in  conference.  On 
the  25th,  Donop,  who  in  the  mean  time  had  reported 
Reed's  request  for  a  conference  to  his  superior  officer, 
sent  a  sealed  letter  to  Reed,  offering  to  meet  him  at  any 
time  or  place  that  he  would  see  fit  to  appoint.  Cadwala- 
der,  in  Reed's  absence,  opened  this  letter,  and  thus  dis 
covered  the  unauthorized  correspondence ;  but  with  ad 
mirable  presence  of  mind  he  used  it  in  the  way  that 
would  best  conceal  his  own  intentions.  While  he  was 
preparing  on  that  very  day  to  lead  his  little  army  across 
the  Delaware,  in  order  to  drive  Donop  back  upon  Prince 
ton,  or  Brunswick,  or  Am  boy,  he  quietly  wrote :  "  Col. 
Reed  will  return  to-morrow,  and  he  will  then  request 
you  to  name  another  time  and  place ;"  and  before  that 
morrow  should  dawn,  it  was  the  intention  of  Cadwalader 
to  meet  Donop  and  his  troops  on  the  edge  of  battle. 
Returning  that  evening,  Reed  became  aware  of  the  con 
tents  of  Donop's  letter.  He  wrote  to  Washington  to 
expect  nothing  from  below,  that  is,  neither  from  Phila- 
3 


34  JOSEPH    EEED  I 

delphia  nor  from  Bristol,  went  across  the  river,  and  he 
who  pretends  that  he  had  been  designated  by  Washing 
ton  to  be  the  virtual  commander  of  the  troops  at  Bris 
tol,  left  the  troops,  and  without  any  pretence  whatever 
of  a  public  nature  to  justify  his  conduct,  he  rode  on  to 
Burlington,  which  was  within  the  cordon  of  the  posts 
established  by  the  British,  which  was  visited  daily  by 
their  patrols,  but  where  the  message  received  a  few 
hours  before  from  Donop  assured  his  personal  safety. 

23. 

The  "President's"  grandson  pretends  that  Reed 
returned  from  Burlington  before  the  issue  of  the  battle 
was  known.  Not  so.  The  testimony  is  all  the  other 
way.  The  silence  and  the  assertions  of  Reed  are  against 
him,  as  well  as  the  testimony  of  Cadwalader.  Reed 
asserts  that  he  heard  at  Burlington  the  cannon  of  the 
battle  of  Trenton ;  now  there  was  but  a  very  slight  use 
of  cannon  on  that  occasion,  and  the  cannon  were  of  light 
calibre;  the  wind  was  from  the  northeast,  carrying  the 
sound  directly  away ;  rain  and  sleet  were  falling ;  and 
Trenton  was  twelve  miles  off.  Cadwalader  got  news  of 
the  result  in  three  hours  after  the  victory;  Reed  pre 
tends  to  have  remained  in  uncertainty  for  thirty-six 
hours.  As  to  the  time  of  Reed's  return,  his  own  ac 
count  is  very  vague,  but  implies  that  he  waited  for  a 
change  of  weather,  and  on  the  26th  the  weather  did 
not  change.  Cadwalader  knows  nothing  of  him  till 

o  o 

the  27th.  The  visit  of  Reed  to  Burlington  at  such  a 
moment,  and  his  stay  there,  have  never  been  explained, 
on  a  motive  of  a  public  character. 

24. 
It   is   the  rule  of  historical  criticism  to  receive,  ex- 


A    HISTORICAL    ESSAY.  35 

arnine,  and  winnow  carefully  all  evidence  that  may  be 
produced,  but  to  give  to  it  no  more  weight  than  it  is 
fairly  entitled  to.  The  testimony  of  the  humblest  is 
never  excluded.  It  is  a  very  remarkable  fact,  that  in  a 
diary  kept  by  Margaret  Morris,  of  Burlington,  there  is 
an  entry  of  the  testimony  of  a  woman  who  said,  she 
overheard  Reed,  when  he  took  shelter  in  Burlington,  on 
the  morning  of  the  26th  of  December,  1776,  avow  to 
Colonel  John  Cox,  who  was  in  the  same  room  with  him, 
the  purpose  of  setting  off  to  the  British  camp.  The  testi 
mony  is  not  entirely  to  be  rejected.  Reed,  at  the  time 
mentioned  in  the  diary,  was  actually  in  Burlington ;  the 
remark  is  in  harmony  with  all  that  had  gone  before  ; 
the  minute  was  made  within  nine  days  after  the  26th  of 
December,  in  a  diary  which  was  entirely  a  private  one. 
There  is  no  reason  for  supposing  the  witness  to  have 
been  able  to  invent  her  report.  The  diary  remained 
entirely  private  till  long  after  the  death  of  its  writer 
and  of  Reed ;  and  the  character  of  the  writer  of  the  diary 
is  beyond  reproach.  As  there  can  be  no  cross-examina 
tion,  the  statement  must  be  subjected  to  the  severest 
scrutiny;  and  the  testimony  of  Colonel  Cox  becomes 
most  desirable.  Now  it  is  a  very  remarkable  fact  that 
we  have  his  testimony. 

25. 

Men  of  that  day  saw  the  dubious  aspect  of  Reed's 
stay  at  Burlington,  and  expressed  their  belief  that  he 
had  meditated  defection.  Desirous  to  purge  himself 
from  the  charge,  Reed  looked  about  for  a  witness  in  his 
behalf,  and  out  of  all  men  in  Pennsylvania  or  New  Jer 
sey,  Colonel  John  Cox,  his  most  devoted  friend,  a  man 
connected  with  him  by  marriage  and  bound  to  him  by 


36  JOSEPH    EEED  : 

benefits  received,  was  the  man  of  his  choice  to  clear  him 
from  the  imputation.  That  witness  makes  his  certificate 
where  he  is  free  from  the  perils  of  a  cross-examination, 
and  he  shows  himself  most  willing  to  appear  on  behalf 
of  his  friend.  The  accusation  was  that  Reed  had  medi 
tated  defection  ;  and  his  witness  deposes :  "  Mr.  Keed 
never  intimated,  nor  had  the  subscriber  the  least  reason 
to  suspect,  he  had  any  intention  of  abandoning  the  cause 
or  arms  of  his  country,  to  join  those  of  the  enemy" 
(Reed  and  Cad.  Pam.  64).  The  question  recurs  again  ; 
and  again  he  answers:  "The  subscriber  had  frequent 
conversations  with  the  said  Mr.  Keed  during  the  time  of 
our  greatest  difficulty  and  distress,  in  none  of  which  did 
it  ever  appear  to  be  the  intention  of  the  said  Mr.  Reed 
to  abandon  the  cause  of  his  country  by  joining  the 
enemy?  (Ibid.)  Thus  Reed  loses  his  case  by  his  own 
chosen  witness,  who  expresses  nothing  at  variance  with 
the  accusation.  Reed  is  charged  with  the  intention  of 
defection,  and  the  denial  is  that  he  did  not  mean  to  do 
so  by  taking  up  arms  on  the  side  of  the  enemy.  This 
denial  is  a  negative  pregnant,  and  must  be  held  not  only 
to  prove  nothing  in  Reed's  behalf,  but  to  authorize  the 
belief  that  the  witness  could  not  explicitly  deny  the 
charge.  I  have  not  the  least  reason  to  suspect  "  that  Reed 
had  any  intention  of  abandoning  the  cause  or  arms  of 
his  country  to  join  those  of  the  enemy,"  but  only  that 
he  meditated  the  abandonment  of  the  cause  and  arms  of 
his  country. 

I  have  thus  traced  the  career  of  Joseph  Reed  from  the 
beginning  of  the  revolution  to  the  close  of  1776.  I 
have  shown  that  he  pushed  a  correspondence  with  Lord 
Dartmouth  until  he  gave  a  hint  that  the  British  govern- 


A    HISTORICAL    ESSAY.  37 

ment  might  wish  to  have  him  on  their  side ;  that,  not 
making  his  way  in  that  direction,  he,  on  the  exaggerated 
reports  of  the  strength  of  the  army  around  Boston,  went 
in  Washington's  family  to  the  camp;  that  after  the 
weakness  of  that  army  manifested  itself,  he  gave  up  his 
post  and  returned  to  Philadelphia;  that  on  the  six 
teenth  of  February,  1776,  he  took  the  oath  of  allegiance 
to  George  the  Third ;  that  finding  Pennsylvania  was 
likely  to  be  a  scene  of  strife,  he  escaped  the  necessity  of 
acting  decisively  by  leaving  its  legislature  for  the  camp 
at  New  York;  that  he  disapproved  of  most  of  what 
was  done  in  1776  to  bring  Pennsylvania  to  moorings  on 
the  patriot  side;  that  on  the  4th  of  July,  1776,  he 
declared  that  "  had  he  known  the  true  posture  of  affairs 
he  would  not  have  taken  an  active  part ;"  that  when 
congress  was  signing  the  Declaration  of  Independence, 
he  was  sighing  for  a  quick  return  to  the  state  of  depend 
ence;  that  in  September,  1776,  he  resolved  within  him 
self  to  resign ;  that  on  the  first  of  October  he  sent  his 
resignation  to  the  committee  of  congress,  to  be  accepted 
"the  sooner,  the  better;"  that  in  the  middle  of  October 
he  promised  his  wife  not  to  sacrifice  her  and  their  chil 
dren  to  fame ;  that  in  November  he  calumniated  Wash 
ington,  and  intrigued  with  Lee ;  that  in  the  last  week  of 
November  he  was  sent  on  special  duty  to  Burlington, 
New  Jersey,  and  instead  of  doing  that  duty,  he  threw  up 
his  commission  without  being  relieved ;  that  being  terri 
fied  into  a  recall  of  his  commission,  he  still  breathed 
disaffection ;  that  he  "  did  not  understand  following  the 
remains  of  a  shattered  army;"  that  without  the  know 
ledge  of  his  superior  officer  he  sought  a  conference  with 
Donop  ;  that  he  avowed  his  opinion  that  a  man  with  a 
family  did  right  to  provide  for  their  safety  by  submit- 


38  JOSEPH    EEED  : 

ting  to  the  British ;  that  he  was  persuaded  the  army 
would  go  to  pieces  "by  the  end  of  the  year  unless  some 
victory  should  meantime  be  achieved ;  that  he  reported 
unfavorably  on  the  movement  proposed  below  Trenton, 
and  believed  that  Washington  would  likewise  fail ; 
that,  pretending  to  have  been  sent  as  the  virtual  com 
mander  of  an  army,  he  separated  himself  from  that  army, 
and,  without  a  public  motive,  went  alone,  or  with  but 
one  companion,  within  the  chain  of  posts  of  the  British ; 
that  a  servant-maid  reported  having  overheard  him  say 
to  John  Cox  that  he  meant  to  go  to  the  British  camp ; 
and  that  the  best  which  John  Cox,  a  devoted  and  familiar 
friend,  could  certify  by  way  of  purging  him  from  the 
charge  of  having  meditated  defection,  was,  that  he  never 
heard  Reed  say  he  intended  to  take  up  arms  on  the 
British  side.  Is  it  not  plain  that,  as  a  public  man,  he  was 
shuffling,  pusillanimous,  and  irresolute ;  that  in  moments 
of  crisis  he  avoided  committal ;  that  the  tardiness  of  his 
decisions  made  them  of  no  significance  ;  that  his  character 
was  tainted  by  duplicity  ;  and  that,  as  a  vacillating 
trimmer,  he.  in  the  darkest  moment  of  the  darkest  hour, 
meditated  defection  ? 


PART    SECOND. 


THIS  brings  me  to  the  second  part  of  our  discussion, 
and  I  must  now  show  that  Reed's  general  character,  as 
manifested  by  his  conduct  from  the  end  of  1776  to  the 
middle  of  1783,  instead  of  rebutting  the  testimony  that 


A   HISTOKICAL   ESSAY.  39 

has  been  brought  forward,  justifies  every  doubt  that 
has  been  expressed  of  his  integrity. 

1. 

After  the  victories  of  Trenton  and  Princeton,  the  first 
anxiety  of  Reed  was  to  recover  the  good  opinion  of 
Washington.  To  advance  this  end,  he  on  the  eighth  of 
March,  1777,  wrote  to  Washington:  "I  could  have 
wished  to  have  one  hour  of  private  conversation  with 
you  on  the  subject  of  a  letter,  written  to  me  by  General 
Lee  before  his  captivity.  I  deferred  it  in  hopes  of 
obtaining  from  him  the  letter  to  which  his  was  an 
answer.  I  fear,  from  what  we  hear,  that  he  will  be  sent 
to  England,  and  of  course  there  will  be  little  proba 
bility  of  my  obtaining  it.  While  he  stays  in  America 
I  cannot  give  up  my  hopes,  and  in  the  mean  time  I  most 
sincerely  assure  you,  that  you  would  see  nothing  in  it 
inconsistent  with  that  respect  and  affection,  which  I 
Jwve,  and  ever  shall  bear  to  your  person  and  character? 
(Washington,  iv.  538).  Now  this  asserts  by  implication 
that  Reed  wished  to  show  Washington  the  letter  which 
he  had  written  to  Lee.  He  does  not  positively  aver 
that  he  has  not  a  copy  of  it,  but  he  plainly  intended 
Washington  should  believe  that  he  had  not  a  copy. 
Yet  he  had  retained  a  draft  or  copy  of  that  letter, 
which  has  since  been  brought  to  light,  and  published  by 
George  H.  Moore  in  his  "Treason  of  Lee."  Next,  he 
assures  Washington  "  most  solemnly  "  that  Washington, 
were  he  to  read  the  letter,  would  see  nothing  in  it 

/  o 

inconsistent  with  respect  and  affection.  The  letter  to 
Lee  referred  to  contained  among  other  things  the  follow 
ing  passages : 

"  I  do  not  mean  to  flatter  or  praise  you  (Charles  Lee) 


4:0  JOSEPH   KEED  : 

at  the  expense  of  any  other,  but  I  confess  I  do  think 
that  it  is  entirely  owing  to  you  that  this  army,  and  the 
liberties  of  America,  so  far  as  they  are  dependent  on  it, 
are  not  totally  cut  off.  You  have  decision,  a  quality 
often  wanted  in  minds  otherwise  valuable,  and  I  as 
cribe  to  this  our  escape  from  York  Island,  from  Kings- 
bridge,  and  the  Plains.  *  *  *  Oh !  General,  an 
indecisive  mind  is  one  of  the  greatest  misfortunes  that 
can  befall  an  army ;  how  often  have  I  lamented  it  this 
campaign."  (Heed's  Keed,  i.  255-256.) 

What  shall  we  say  of  a  man  who  insinuates  a  regret 
of  his  inability  to  show  a  letter  of  which  he  had  retained 
a  copy,  and,  concealing  the  document,  gives  his  most 
solemn  assurance  of  that  which  has  not  even  a  color  of 
truth  ?  On  the  fourth  of  June,  Keed  writes  again  to 
Washington,  in  a  still  more  earnest  strain,  reasserting  his 
respect  and  attachment,  "  from  which,"  he  says,  "  what 
ever  my  enemies  have  insinuated,  upon  my  honor  I  have 
never  deviated"  (Washington,  iv.  539).  Was  Keed 
nice  about  his  honor  ? 

2. 

Pennsylvania  was  rent  by  factions  at  the  time  of  the 
battle  of  Brandywine,  and  it  was  when  these  factions 
were  at  their  height,  that  Keed,  in  September,  1777,  was 
borne  into  congress.  There,  his  ability,  his  acquaintance 
with  the  army,  and  his  position  as  the  representative  of  a 
central  State  which  was  the  field  of  action,  gave  him 
consideration.  His  great  achievement  in  the  winter  was 
the  transfer  of  the  quartermaster-general's  department 
from  salaried  officers  to  a  partnership  of  Greene,  and  two 
men  who  were  his  connections  by  marriage ;  and  who 
received  for  their  emoluments  five  per  cent,  on  all  their 


A   HISTOKICAL   ESSAY.  41 

disbursements.  One  of  the  two  men  was  the  John  Cox 
whom  we  have  just  seen  appearing  as  Reed's  purgative 
witness.  (Bancroft's  Letter  to  the  North  American 
Review,  March,  1867.) 

3. 

It  was  the  fashion  to  court  popularity  by  proposing 
rash  measures.  Reed  in  that  winter  advises  Washing 
ton,  whose  army  was  in  the  most  desperate  condition, 
to  leave  Pennsylvania,  and,  without  the  supremacy  on 
the  water,  to  throw  himself  against  New  York;  a  system 
which,  if  adopted,  must  have  been  followed  by  the 
ruin  of  Washington's  fame,  and  imminent  danger  to 
the  country. 

4. 

Governor  Johnstone,  one  of  the  commissioners  sent 
out  in  1778  to  bring  about  an  accommodation  be 
tween  the  United  States  and  Great  Britain,  wrote 
tempting  letters  to  several  individuals,  among  others 
to  Joseph  Reed,  with  whom  he,  like  Lord  Howe,  in  1776, 
had  been  put  in  connection  by  a  letter  from  Dennis  De 
Berdt.  That  letter  said  even,  "  that  Reed's  name  had 
been  mentioned  to  his  majesty  with  great  respect."  To 
the  letter  from  Johnstone,  Reed  replied  near  the  latter 
end  of  June,  and  his  answer  was  couched  in  so  meek  a 
spirit  that  Washington  advised  him  not  to  send  it,  say 
ing,  "  an  unfavorable  use,  more  than  probably,  will  be 
made  of  it."  Yet  the  reply  of  Reed  appears  to  have 
been  sent.  A  few  days  after,  but  still  in  June,  he  met 
by  appointment  one  Mrs.  Ferguson,  who  was  anxious 
to  consult  him  about  saving  her  estate  in  Pennsylvania 
from  confiscation.  In  the  course  of  conversation  she 
professed  to  have  authority  from  Jehu  stone  to  say,  that 


42  JOSEPH   EEED  : 

in  case  of  a  reunion  between  the  two  countries,  to  be 
promoted  by  Reed's  interest,  it  could  not  be  deemed 
improper  in  the  British  government  to  let  him  have  ten 
thousand  pounds,  and  any  office  in  the  colonies  in  his 
majesty's  gift. 

It  was  simply  ridiculous  for  her  to  make  offers  in  the 
name  of  the  British  government  and  the  king,  in  reward 
for  services  which  were  impossible  to  be  rendered.  Reed, 
heard  the  proposition,  by  his  own  account,  in  silence,  but 
finding  that  an  answer  was  expected,  he  made  a  very 
proper  one,  but  not  more  decided  than  he  would  have 
done  had  he  been  disposed  to  a  parley  ;  for  he  would  not 
have  put  himself  in  the  power  of  an  American  woman. 
The  conversation  continued  upon  the  affairs  of  Mrs. 
Ferguson;  but  Reed,  who  had  answered  Governor 
Johnstone's  written  communication  of  the  same  tenor 
with  friendly  tameness,  kept  his  reply  to  a  woman  in 
reserve  for  future  use,  and  after  a  month's  delay  brought 
it  out  in  an  epigrammatic  form.  Mrs.  Ferguson  de 
nied  on  oath  "  that  the  conversation  had  been  kindly, 
friendly,  or  fairly  stated"  (Remembrancer  for  1779, 
141).  ' 

The  Marquis  de  Chastellux,  who  was  the  true  friend 
of  the  people ;  who  was  the  author  of  the  phrase,  that 
the  end  of  government  should  be  "  the  greatest  happi 
ness  of  the  greatest  number;"  who  served  most  hono 
rably  and  disinterestedly  in  America ;  who  was  a  man 
of  honor,  and  candid,  impartial  judgment ;  who  so  at 
tracted  Washington  that  after  their  parting  Washington 
said  of  him,  "  I  love  him  like  a  brother,"  writes  thus 
about  the  offers  made  to  Reed  through  Mrs.  Ferguson : 
"  Mr.  Reed,  who  is  a  man  of  talent,  a  little  of  an  in 
triguer,  and,  above  all,  greedy  of  popular  favor,  made  a 


A    HISTORICAL    ESSAY.  43 

great  noise,  published  and  exaggerated  the  offers  that 
were  made  to  him"  (Chastellux,  i.  166). 

Chastell ux  judged  the  conduct  of  Reed  from  what 
was  then  known ;  but  we  must  measure  the  degree  of 
Reed's  indignation  by  what  the  marquis  never  saw,  the 
mild  response  of  Reed  to  Johnstone,  and  by  the  follow 
ing  billet,  written  nearly  a  month  after  Reed's  interview 
with  Mrs.  Ferguson : 

"PHILADELPHIA,  July  19,  1778. 

"  Mr.  Reed  begs  the  favor  of  Mrs.  Yard  to  take  up  any  letters  of  a 
private  nature  she  may  find  for  him  in  New  York,  and  if  she  meets  with 
any  difficulty  in  this  or  any  part  of  her  own  business,  Mr.  Reed  will  pre 
sume  so  much  upon  the  politeness  of  Gov.  Johnstone  as  to  request  his 
favor  to  her  as  Mr.  R's  friend.  Should  she  wait  on  Gov.  Johnstone  on 
this  or  any  other  occasion,  Mr.  R.  begs  her  to  present  him  respectfully 
to  that  gentleman,  and  acquaint  him  that  Mr.  R.  received  his  letter,  and 
did  himself  the  honor  of  answering  it  from  General  Washington's  head 
quarters,  at  the  Valley  Forge,  the  latter  end  of  last  month.  Mr.  R. 
wishes  her  a  good  journey  and  a  safe  return,  with  all  possible  success  in 
her  business." 

My  copy  of  this  billet  came  to  me  from  Scotland,  from 
the  papers  of  Adam  Ferguson,  the  historian  of  the  Ro 
man  Republic,  who  was  secretary  to  the  British  commis 
sion  of  1778. 

5. 

After  the  recovery  of  Philadelphia,  two  Quakers  were 
brought  up  for  trial  for  high  treason.  What  part  Reed 
took  on  the  occasion  may  be  learned  from  a  letter  from 
the  French  minister,  Gerard,  to  Vergennes,  which  runs 
as  follows : 

"  The  Quakers  of  different  provinces  meeting  in  this  place  for  their 
annual  assembly,  it  was  wished  to  give  them  the  spectacle  of  seeing  two 
of  their  principal  members  hanged.  Great  consternation  prevails  among 


44  JOSEPH    EEED  : 

them,  but  it  is  yet  expected  that  they  will  yield  immediately  to  the 
necessity  of  circumstances.  As  traits  which  characterize  the  manners 
of  this  country,  I  will  remark  that  a  former  member  of  congress  and  the 
judge  of  the  admiralty  have  undertaken  to  defend  the  Quakers,  accused 
of  high  treason.  A  member  of  the  present  Congress  was  disposed  to 
undertake  the  defense  jointly  with  them,  but  as  the  time  of  the  election 
is  drawing  near,  he  succumbed  to  public  clamor,  and  he  has,  on  the  con 
trary,  served  as  Assistant  to  the  Attorney-General.  It  is  proposed  to 
indemnify  him  for  the  sacrifice,  which  is  not  inconsiderable,  for  Roberts 
has  paid  six  thousand  pounds  to  his  advocates  "  (Gerard  to  Vergennes, 
Get  4,  1778). 

It  was  on  this  occasion  that  Cadwalader  said  of  Reed : 
"  It  argued  the  extremity  of  effrontery  and  baseness  in 
one  man  to  pursue  another  to  death  for  taking  a  step 
which  his  own  foot  had  been  once  raised  to  take  "  (Cad- 
walader's  Reply,  23). 

6. 

In  December,  1778,  Joseph  Reed  was  elected  Presi 
dent  of  Pennsylvania.  He  had  himself  been  one  of  the 
most  strenuous  opposers  of  the  constitution,  and  received 
the  support  of  those  who  disapproved  it  like  himself,  in 
the  expectation  that  he  would  take  the  lead  in  the  sup 
port  of  amendments.  Elected  to  the  chair,  he  put  him 
self  at  the  head  of  the  party  for  the  constitution. 

7. 

In  July,  1779,  the  letter  of  Reed  to  Lee  in  1776  once 
more  became  a  subject  of  queiies.  Reed,  then  "  Presi 
dent  "  of  Pennsylvania,  immediately  took  notice  of  them. 
The  notice  is  remarkable  only  as  showing  the  indifference 
of  Reed  to  truth  when  there  was  occasion  for  vindica 
tions  of  himself.  Here  is  an  extract : 

"In  the  fall  of  1776,  I  was  extremely  anxious  that  Fort  Washington 
should  be  evacuated ;  there  was  a  difference  in  opinion  among  those 


A   HISTOEICAL   ESSAY.  45 

whom  the  General  consulted.  *  *  *  Knowing  that  General  Lee's 
opinion  would  be  a  great  support  to  mine,  I  wrote  to  him  from  Hack- 
ensack,  stating  the  case  and  my  reasons.  *  *  *  The  event  but  too 
fully  justified  my  anxiety,  for  the  fort  was  summoned  that  very  day  and 
surrendered  the  next.  I  absolutely  deny  that  there  is  any  other  ground 
but  this  letter,  and  if  there  is  let  it  be  produced  "  (Reed's  Heed,  i. 
262). 

Now  the  letter  of  Reed  to  Lee  was  written  on  the 
21st  of  November,  five  days  after  Fort  Washington  had 
fallen.  There  could  be  no  pretext  for  lapse  of  memory, 
for  Lee  had  preserved  the  letter  itself,  and  Reed  had 
kept  the  draft  or  a  copy.  But  Reed  risked  the  false 
hood,  holding  Lee's  written  pledge  that  the  letter  should 
not  be  produced  to  embroil  him  with  Washington 
(Reed's  Reed,  i.  369). 

8. 

Joseph  Reed  proved  a  most  inefficient  President. 
The  spirit  of  Pennsylvania  was  noble,  but  its  patriotism 
was  compelled  to  manifest  itself  outside  of  its  executive 
government.  Of  this  there  exists  an  abundance  of 
evidence ;  I  will  take  only  Greene,  Washington,  and  the 
French  minister,  as  witnesses.  In  1780  the  French 
government  proposed  to  send  to  our  aid  ships  of  war 
and  an  army,  as  well  as  money,  doing  every  thing  to 
interest  the  gratitude  of  the  Americans,  fire  their  emu 
lation,  and  rouse  them  to  such  activity  in  the  coming 
campaign  as  might  be  decisive  in  the  contest.  Washing 
ton  was  dissatisfied  with  the  government  of  Pennsylvania 
for  want  of  proper  exertions  to  save  the  army.  Greene, 
in  a  letter  to  Reed,  uses  these  words :  "  The  great  man 
is  confounded  at  his  situation,  but  appears  to  be  reserved 
and  silent."  On  the  twenty-eighth  of  May  "  the  great 
man  "  employs  in  advance  language  of  persuasive  power, 


46  JOSEPH   EEED : 

entreaty,  and  affectionate  confidence,  which  the  President 
was  to  justify  by  his  acts,  and  thus  wrote  to  Heed : 

*'  Now,  my  dear  Sir,  I  must  observe  to  you,  that  much  will  depend 
on  the  State  of  Pennsylvania.  *  *  *  Delaware  may  contribute 
handsomely,  in  proportion  to  her  extent.  But  Pennsylvania  is  our 
chief  dependence.  *  *  *  I  know  that,  with  the  best  dispositions 
to  promote  the  public  service,  you  have  been  obliged  to  move  with 
circumspection.  But  this  is  a  time  to  hazard  and  to  take  a  tone  of 
energy  and  decision.  All  parties  but  the  disaffected  will  acquiesce  in 
the  necessity  and  give  their  support.  *  *  *  Either  Pennsylvania 
must  give  us  all  the  aid  we  ask  of  her,  or  we  can  undertake  nothing. 
#  *  *  j  wish  the  legislature  could  be  engaged  to  vest  the  executive 
with  plenipotentiary  powers.  I  should  then  expect  every  thing  practi 
cable  from  your  abilities  and  zeal "  (Washington's  Writings,  vii. 
61-63). 

The  patriotic  legislature  accordingly  gave  extraordi 
nary  powers,  but  President  Reed  refused  to  employ 
them.  Upon  this  Greene  wrote  to  Reed,  on  the  29th  of 
June:  "The  general,  the  army,  and  in  a  word  every 
body  have  their  eyes  upon  you,  knowing  the  State 
abounds  with  resources  of  every  kind,  and  that  you 
have  power  to  draw  them  forth  "  (Reed,  i.  217).  The 
opinion  went  abroad  that  Reed  was  restrained  from  act 
ing  by  the  fear  of  injuring  his  popularity.  The  judg 
ment  of  Washington  respecting  this  inactivity  may  be 
seen  running  like  a  thread  through  a  letter  of  interces- 

~  o 

sion  couched  in  the  most  friendly  language,  but  in  sub 
stance  full  of  reproof  and  complaint.  Here  are  some  of 
his  words,  written  on  the  4th  of  July,  1780  : 

"  Motives  of  friendship,  not  less  than  of  public  good,  induce  me  with 
freedom  to  give  you  my  sentiments  on  a  matter  which  interests  you  per 
sonally,  as  well  as  the  good  of  the  common  cause.  *  *  *  The  best 
way  to  preserve  the  confidence  of  the  people  durably  is  to  promote  their 
true  interest.  *  *  *  The  party  opposed  to  you  in  the  government 


A    HISTORICAL    ESSAY.  47 

are  making  great  efforts.  *  *  *  You  have  no  effectual  way  to  coun 
terbalance  this  but  by  employing  all  your  influence  and  authority  to 
render  services  proportioned  to  your  station.  Hitherto,  I  confess  to  you 
frankly,  my  dear  Sir,  I  do  not  think  your  affairs  have  been  in  the  train 
which  might  be  wished.  *  *  *  I  write  to  you  with  the  freedom 
of  friendship,  and  I  hope  you  will  esteem  it  the  truest  mark  I  could  give 
you  of  it."  (Washington's  Writings,  vii.  99-101.) 

It  is  strange  that  any  one  should  have  been  so  misled 
by  the  sweets  around  the  brim  of  this  cup,  as  not  to 
perceive  the  bitterness  of  the  potion  commended  to  the 
lips  of  "  the  President."  The  letter  is  a  severe  rebuke 
even  more  than  a  cry  of  distress,  and  proves  that  Wash 
ington  had  come  to  know  Reed  as  one  who  was  ever 
thinking  more  of  himself  than  of  his  country. 

But  Reed  could  not  contemplate  events  with  the  eyes 
of  Washington.  Instead  of  following  the  advice  re 
ceived,  he  wrote  in  reply  an  enormously  long  letter,  and 
threw  the  blame  of  his  deficiency  on  the  people  of  Penn 
sylvania,  whom  he  thus  aspersed  :  "  It  is  my  firm  opin 
ion,  sanctified  by  that  of  many  gentlemen  of  more 
knowledge  and  experience,  that  the  people  of  this  State 
would,  if  too  heavily  pressed,  more  readily  renew  their 
connection  with  Great  Britain  than  any  State  now  in  the 
Union  "  (Reed,  ii.  288). 

Such  was  the  u  President's "  opinion  of  the  people 
whose  legislature  had  chosen  him  president.  He  did 
now,  what  he  had  repeatedly  done  before — he  trans 
ferred  his  own  infirmities  to  those  around  him.  Just  so 
on  the  4th  of  July,  1776,  when  he  quailed  with  fear  and 
wished  he  had  taken  no  part  in  the  war,  he  thought 
there  was  a  "  universal  "  quailing  of  all  about  him.  In 
November,  when  from  helpless  indecision  he  knew  not 
what  to  do,  he  thought  Washington  was  undecided  ; 

o  o  ' 


48  JOSEPH   EEED  : 

and  now,  when  lie  feared  to  take  the  responsibility 
devolved  upon  him  by  the  Pennsylvania  legislature,  he 
threw  the  blame  from  his  own  want  of  heart  upon  the 
State  itself. 

The  French  Secretary  Marbois,  the  author  of  most 
valuable  works  on  the  treason  of  Arnold  and  on  the 
history  of  Louisiana,  sets  the  whole  matter  in  a  clear 
light  in  his  letter  from  Philadelphia,  written  on  the  25th 
of  September,  1780,  for  the  instruction  of  Vergennes: 

"  The  President  of  the  State  sacrifices  every  thing  to  the  desire  to 
increase  his  popularity,  and  obstinately  persists  in  neither  raising  troops 
nor  contingent,  nor  the  quota  of  taxes,  in  the  hope  that,  as  the  price  of 
his  trucklings  [managements],  he  will  prolong  his  authority  beyond  the 
limit  fixed  by  the  constitution.  By  his  resistance,  Congress  sees  the 
plan  of  finance  of  last  March  on  the  point  of  being  wrecked." 

9. 

Events  proved  how  wise  was  the  advice  of  Washing 
ton,  and  how  totally  Reed  mistook  the  character  of  the 
Pennsylvanians,  and  "  the  best  way  to  preserve  their 
confidence  durably.1'  This  appears  fully  from  a  letter 
of  the  French  ambassador  at  Philadelphia,  written  on 
the  19th  of  December,  1782: 

"  Mr.  Reed,  after  having  exercised  in  all  its  extent  the  power  which 
the  constitution  grants  to  the  chief  magistrate  of  this  State,  after  hav 
ing  for  three  years  moved  according  to  his  own  caprice  a  government 
composed  of  his  creatures,  falls  into  abject  degradation  \Vavilissemen  t\f 
appears  oppressed  with  the  hatred  and  contempt  of  most  of  his  fellow- 
citizens,  and  to  feel  how  transient  is  the  favor  of  the  people  when  it  is 
founded  upon  nothing  but  intrigue." 

The  account  sent  home  to  England  by  Sir  Guy  Carle- 
ton,  who  was  a  man  of  great  moderation  and  candor, 
after  the  arrival  of  the  news  of  peace,  is  not  more  favor 
able  to  President  Reed.  General  Cadwalader  describes 


A   HISTOEICAL    ESSAY.  49 

Keed  as  "  a  rapacious  lawyer,  who  never  omitted  any 
means  of  amassing  a  fortune"  (Cadwalader,  52).  In 
August,  1782,  General  Greene,  who  was  Reed's  friend, 
described  him  as  "  pursuing  wealth  with  avidity,  being 
convinced  that  to  have  power  you  must  have  riches" 
(Reed's  Reed,  ii.  387).  The  accounts  sent  by  Carleton 
are :  "  In  his  private  character  he  is  a  man  of  polite  ad 
dress,  a  good  fluency  of  speech,  exceedingly  artful,  much 
attached  to  his  interest,  and  ambitious  of  being  respected 
as  a  great  man.  He  is  possessed  of  some  good  qualities, 
but  his  avarice  casts  a  shade  over  them."  "  Mr.  Reed  is 
a  man  of  great  abilities,  possessed  of  a  daring,  enterpri 
sing  genius,  but  said  to  be  destitute  of  every  honorable 
sentiment."  (In  the  Letters  of  Sir  Guy  Carleton  to  the 
Secretary  of  State,  of  March  15  and  April  13,  1783.) 

10. 

In  September,  1782,  there  appeared  in  the  Philadel 
phia  Independent  Gazetteer  an  anonymous  paper  accusa 
tory  of  Reed.  The  people  do  not  like  to  see  blows 
aimed  at  a  man  who  is  down,  and  the  sentiment  in  Phil 
adelphia  in  regard  to  it  seems  to  have  been  expressed 
by  John  Armstrong,  in  February,  1785,  in  these  words  : 
"  It  is  cruel  when  we  consider  the  bed  of  thorns  he 
[Reed]  has  sat  upon  for  six  long  years,  and  the  many 
disappointments,  civil  and  military,  he  has  met  with." 
Reed,  by  his  defense,  forced  Cadwalader  to  reply ;  but 
in  my  history  I  made  no  use  of  this  controversy,  except 
by  happening  to  cite  one  or  two  lines  uttered  to  Cad 
walader  in  1776,  and  which  are  no  more  than  an  echo 
of  other  words  and  acts  of  Joseph  Reed  himself.  But,  as 
far  as  character  is  concerned,  the  pamphlet  of  Joseph 
Reed  is  his  own  worst  accuser.  It  was  the  study  and 
4 


50  JOSEPH   EEED  : 

analysis  of  that  pamphlet  which  opened  my  eyes  to  his 
h  oil  own  ess. 

It  is  discursive,  and  seeks  to  win  the  judgment  of  the 
reader  by  scattering  attention  over  many  subjects,  some 
of  which  are  irrelevant. 

It  would  have  been  a  complete  justification  of  Reed's 
letter  to  Donop  if  he  could  have  said  that  he  sent  it  by 
Washington's  direction;  and  he  is  obliged  to  own  that 
he  sent  it  on  his  own  motion,  without  authority.  He 
declares  that  he  acted  by  the  request  of  the  inhabitants 
of  Burlington,  and  his  witness  only  testifies  that  he  did 
so  as  "  this  deponent  understood."  He  owns  that  he 
spent  many  hours  on  the  26th  at  Burlington,  and  he 
gives  no  public  reason  whatever  for  having  done  so. 
He  cites  John  Cox  as  his  witness  for  not  having  medi 
tated  defection ;  and  Cox  only  testifies  that  he  did  not 
intend  joining  "  the  arms  "  of  the  enemy. 

He  appeals  most  earnestly  to  the  justice  and  candor 
of  Washington  for  deliverance;  and  the  answer  con 
tains  not  one  word  of  hearty  approbation  or  enduring 
confidence.  Washington  alludes  to  his  having  sent 
Reed  from  Newark  to  the  Assembly  of  New  Jersey,  as 
proof  of  confidence  "  at  that  time ;"  but  he  says  not 
one  word  of  Reed's  having  executed  the  trust  committed 
to  him.  Reed  especially  calls  Washington's  attention  to 
his  letter  of  December  22d,  on  attacking  Trenton ;  but 
Washington,  who,  if  Reed  had  been  the  mover  of  that 
expedition,  must  have  had  the  fact  indelibly  written  on 
his  mind,  puts  the  inquiry  aside  as  coldly  as  if  he  had 
dipped  his  pen  in  the  icy  waters  of  the  Yukon. 

But  the  great  injury  done  to  Reed's  reputation  by  his 
own  pamphlet  is  the  insincerity  and  inaccuracy  of  his 
statements,  proving  a  lurking  consciousness  that  his 


A   HISTORICAL    ESSAY.  51 

case  would  not  bear  a  simple  acknowledgment  of  the 
truth.  Take  a  single  passage  as  an  example  of  the 
whole : 

"In  the  course  of  our  retreat  through  the  Jerseys,  I  was  dispatched  on 
public  business  to  the  legislature  of  New  Jersey  at  Burlington,  where 
my  family  had  retired.  By  this  time  the  enemy  had  advanced  to  Bruns 
wick,  where  they  proposed  to  finish  the  campaign,  making  that  their 
advanced  quarters,  as  we  intended  ours  at  Trenton  or  Princeton.  The 
time  was  now  come  when  I  conceived  I  might  resign  my  commission 
with  propriety,  and  I  accordingly  inclosed  it  to  Mr.  Hancock,  then 
president  of  congress.  At  midnight  of  that  very  day,  I  received  a 
message  from  General  Washington,  that,  invited  by  the  broken  state  of 
our  troops,  the  enemy  had  changed  their  plan,  and  were  rapidly  advan 
cing  toward  the  Delaware,  upon  which  I  instantly  sent  off  a  special 
messenger  to  recall  the  commission,  and  resolved  to  return  to  the  army 
and  abide  its  fate.  He  was  in  time  to  deliver  my  letter  before  congress 
had  met,  and  returned  with  the  commission,  with  which  I  joined  General 
Washington  at  Trenton  the  next  morning"  (J.  Reed,  12). 

By  this  time  the  enemy  had  advanced  to  Brunswick. 
Not  true.  They  had  not  advanced  to  Brunswick. 

Where  they  proposed  to  finish  the  campaign.  They 
were  then  pushing  Washington,  and  had  not  proposed 
to  finish  the  campaign. 

We  intended  to  finish  ours  at  Trenton  or  Princeton. 
Washington  harbored  no  such  design. 

TJie  time  was  now  come  when  I  conceived  I  might 
resign  my  commission  with  propriety.  It  was  the  time 
when  he  ought  least  of  all  to  have  resigned  his  commis 
sion,  and  could  least  of  all  have  done  it  with  propriety. 
He  was  at  that  time  sent  on  special  duty  "  to  the  Assem 
bly  of  New  Jersey,  to  rouse  and  animate  them  to 
spirited  measures  for  Washington's  support;"  and  he 
offered  his  resignation  without  the  knowledge  of  Wash 
ington,  without  having  finished  the  duty  assigned  him, 
and  without  having  been  relieved. 


52  JOSEPH  REED: 

I  inclosed  my  commission  to  Mr.  Hancock.  *  *  *  At 
midnight  I  received  a  message  from  General  Washing 
ton.  The  pretense  that  his  change  of  purpose  was  swift 
has  no  foundation.  Heed  inclosed  his  commission 
November  28,  and  Washington's  letters  to  him  and  the 
Governor  of  New  Jersey  were  dated  November  30. 

A.  message  from  General  Washington  that  the  enemy 
liad  changed  their  plan.  Pure  fiction.  He  could  have 
received  no  such  message  from  Washington,  for  the 
enemy  had  not  changed  their  plan,  and  were  then 
driving  Washington  before  them,  as  they  had  been 
doing  when  Reed  left  the  camp. 

I  instantly  sent  off  a  special  messenger  to  recall  the 
commission.  *  *  *  He  was  in  time  to  deliver  my  letter 
before  congress  had  met.  Heed's  letter  recalling  his 
commission  was  written  December  2,  and  reached  con 
gress  December  3. 

Thus  the  excuses  of  Reed  are  a  series  of  false  state 
ments  both  as  to  the  character  of  events  and  as  to  time ; 
and  this  is  but  a  specimen  of  the  way  in  which  he  tries 
to  bend  facts  to  his  own  self-justification. 

The  historic  importance  of  Reed  was  so  inconsiderable 
that  his  career  should  have  been  left  to  oblivion,  as  the 
Philadelphians  of  1783  were  willing  to  leave  it;  but 
there  was  first  on  his  own  part,  and  afterward  on  the 
part  of  his  descendant,  an  unscrupulous  determination 
to  raise  him  to  a  position  to  which  he  has  no  title.  And 
this  leads  to  the  third  part  of  the  present  discussion. 


A   HISTORICAL   ESSAY.  53 


PART    THIRD. 


IT  was  necessary  to  exhibit  Reed  in  his  true  light  in 
order  to  purge  the  pages  of  history  of  scandalous  error, 
introduced  in  part  by  the  "President"  himself,  but 
greatly  and  daringly  enlarged  by  his  elaborate  biogra 
pher,  with  painstaking  plausibility  and  an  affectation  of 
historical  impartiality,  but  without  authority  and  against 
clear  evidence. 

To  carry  out  the  cherished  design  of  conferring 
exalted  fame  on  one  who  had  no  claim  to  it,  a  necessity 
arose  to  rob  the  truly  meritorious  of  their  laurels ;  and, 
as  the  highest  honors  were  coveted,  to  tear  them  from 
the  chaplet  of  Washington.  In  the  pursuit  of  this  object, 
there  was  no  scruple  to  destroy  the  reputation  of  the 
Commander-in-chief.  No  book  that  I  have  ever  read 
contains  such  libels  on  Washington'  sconduct  and  ability 
as  the  biography  of  Joseph  Reed  by  his  grandson.  The 
wrong  is  concealed  under  occasional  words  of  praise,  and 
under  statements  and  language  that  wear  the  aspect  of 
innocence  and  good  intentions ;  but  if  the  narrative  is 
severely  examined  and  truly  weighed,  William  B.  Reed 
will  be  found  to  charge  Washington  with  imbecility,  in 
order  to  make  room  for  the  ridiculously  false  preten 
sion,  that  much  of  what  was  done  best  in  the  war  of  the 
revolution  was  done  by  the  Joseph  Reed  whose  cha 
racter,  career,  and  estimation  among  his  fellow-men  we 
have  been  considering. 


54  JOSEPH   EEED  I 

1. 

The  first  signal  attempt  by  the  grandson  to  injure  the 
fame  of  Washington,  and  appropriate  his  merit  to  Joseph 
Reed,  is  made  in  the  account  of  the  retreat  from  Long 
Island. 

For  this  he  prepares  the  way  by  imaginary  state 
ments.  He  assumes  that  Washington,  who  crossed  over 

o         / 

to  Brooklyn  on  the  twenty-sixth,  passed  the  following 
night  on  Long  Island.  He  says:  " Washington  acted  as 
if  in  command  of  victorious  troops"  [Reed's  Reed,  i.,  p. 
222].  "  Washington  still  adhered  to  his  intention  to 
risk  a  battle  at  his  intrenchments,  and  the  idea  of  a 
retreat  was  not  then  entertained"  [p.  224].  Some  hours 
after  Washington  had  ordered  the  necessary  prepara 
tions  for  a  retreat,  with  the  secrecy  which  alone  could 
promise  success,  William  B.  Reed  writes  of  him  :  "  The 
Commander-in-Chief  desired  to  try  the  fortune  of  war 
once  more  in  his  present  position  ;"  and  so  having  repre 
sented  Washington  as  a  simpleton,  bent  on  losing  him 
self  and  his  army,  he  brings  forward  Joseph  Reed  as  the 
wise  and  sagacious  officer  who  was  just  in  time  to  save 
the  country  by  overcoming  Washington's  perverse  deter 
mination  to  fight,  and  persuading  him  to  leave  Long 
Island.  [See  Bancroft,  ix.  101-107.] 

2. 

In  an  extravagant  letter,  thrown  off  in  a  moment  of 
tremulous  irresolution,  Joseph  Reed  had  accused  Wash 
ington  of  an  indecisive  mind,  and  had  emphatically  written 
that  it  was  owing  to  General  Lee  that  Washington's 
army  had  not  been  entirely  cut  off.  William  B.  Reed, 
therefore,  to  protect  the  reputation  of  his  grandfather, 
does  not  scruple  to  write  that  Lee  "  arrived  at  camp  at 


A    HISTOEICAL    ESSAY.  55 

the  moment  when  the  council  of  war  was  hesitating,  and 
probably  by  his  decisive  expression  of  opinion,  and  his 
influence,  happily  controlled  its  determination  "  to  retire 
from  the  island  of  New  York.  Now,  in  truth,  Lee  came 
with  no  such  idea ;  and  Washington  had  not  only  re 
solved  on  the  evacuation  of  New  York  island,  but  had 
already  removed  more  than  half  of  his  army  before  Lee's 
arrival.  [See  Bancroft,  ix.  175 ;  note.] 

3. 

The  battle  of  Trenton  is  the  great  rallying-ground  of 
Reed  and  his  grandson.  What  did  Reed  really  do 
about  the  battle  of  Trenton  ?  Some  days  after  the  attack 
on  Trenton  had  been  resolved  upon  by  Washington, 
Reed,  who  thought  success  impossible,  wrote  to  Wash 
ington  advising  it,  and  saying  that  "  favorable  appear 
ances  must  attend  our  arms,"  or  "  we  must  give  up  the 
cause,"  the  "  desperate  and  hopeless  cause."  On  the 
night  of  Christmas-day  he  did  not  believe  that  success 
would  attend  the  expedition.  Yet  William  B.  Reed,  in 
his  biography  of  his  grandfather,  even  risks  the  assertion 
(Reed's  Reed,  i.  271),  that  "it  is  certain  that  the  letter 
from  Colonel  Reed  (of  December  22d)  had  an  immedi 
ate  and  conclusive  influence ;"  when  it  is  established 
beyond  the  room  for  a  cavil,  that  it  had  no  influence  at 
all  on  the  plan  or  the  execution  of  the  attack,  which  was 
in  preparation  long  before  that  letter  was  written. 

If  Reed  wished  to  influence  Washington's  conduct, 
why  did  he  keep  back  his  advice  till  long  after  Wash 
ington  had  made  his  decision  ?  And  if  he  had  advice  to 
give,  why  did  he,  who  was  at  the  head  of  Washington's 
staff  and  within  an  hour's  ride  of  head-quarters,  give  his 
opinion  in  a  prolix  letter  ?  His  grandson  insists  that 


I 

56  JOSEPH   REED : 

the  letter  could  not  have  been  written  to  be  produced 
for  his  own  justification;  for,  says  he,  "if  such  was  Mr. 
Reed's  design  in  writing  this  letter,  he  would  have  kept 
a  copy  to  produce  on  a  fit  occasion,  and  this  we  know  he 
certainly  did  not ;  as  I  have  said  in  the  text,  he  never 
saw  this  letter  during  his  life."  "  He  would  have  kept  a 
copy?  Of  course  he  would.  "And  this  we  know  lie 
certainly  did  not?  And  this  we  know  he  certainly  did  ; 
for  Gordon  in  his  history  quotes  from  it  the  skilfully 
selected  passages  that  might  serve  to  glorify  Reed. 
From  whom  did  Gordon  get  the  extract  ?  From  Wash 
ington  or  from  Reed  himself?  We  have  it  under 
Washington's  own  hand  that  he  refused  to  Gordon 

O 

access  to  his  papers ;  then  it  follows  that  Gordon,  who 
during  the  war  of  the  Revolution  collected  papers  on  all 
sides,  obtained  it  from  Joseph  Reed  himself,  though  his 
work  was  not  printed  till  after  Reed's  death.  So  then 
Gordon's  story  of  Reed's  suggestion  of  the  affair  of 
Trenton  is  traced  to  none  other  than  to  Joseph  Reed. 
That  Reed  was  capable  of  attempting  to  appropriate  to 
himself  praise  that  did  not  belong  to  him,  was  observed 
by  Charles  Thomson,  in  Reed's  lifetime. 

William  B.  Reed,  in  his  late  pamphlet,  seeks  to 
renew  the  exploded  idea  that  the  movement  on  Trenton 
was  of  the  suggestion  of  his  grandfather,  and  to  support 
that  claim,  from  a  speech  delivered  by  a  lawyer  in  court 
thirty-three  years  after  the  event,  he  quotes  an  allusion  to 
an  opinion  of  Mifflin,  as  of  one  who,  at  the  time,  was  a 
member  of  the  council  of  war.  Now  all  this  falls  to  the 
ground;  for  Mifflin,  at  the  time  of  the  Trenton  affair, 
was  not  a  member  of  the  council  of  war,  having  been 
absent  from  camp  then  and  for  weeks  before,  so  that  of 
himself  he  knew  nothing  about  the  matter.  From 


A   HISTORICAL    ESSAY.  57 

whom  then  did  Mifflin  get  his  story  about  the  sug 
gestion?  From  Washington  or  Reed?  Not  from 
Washington ;  if  indeed,  so  far  as  Mifflin's  name  is  used, 
the  whole  matter  is  not  a  mistake,  as  the  essential  part 
certainly  is. 

Having  thus  disposed  of  the  false  value  put  upon 
Reed's  letter  of  December  22, 1776,  the  question  recurs : 
What  did  Reed  actually  do  toward  securing  success  at 
Trenton  ?  And  the  answer  is,  as  the  head  of  Washing 
ton's  staff,  he  did  nothing;  as  the  virtual  commander  at 
Bristol,  nothing ;  as  a  visitor  at  Burlington,  nothing ;  as 
a  self-constituted  messenger  to  Putnam,  nothing;  as  a 
reporter  to  Washington  of  what  was  doing  below, 
nothing,  or  worse  than  nothing. 

And  where  was  Joseph  Reed  during  the  battle? 
Every  minute  of  the  time,  twelve  miles  off,  voluntarily 
separated  from  the  army,  and  snugly  sheltered  from  the 
sleet  and  the  stormy  northeast  wind,  in  a  comfortable 
house  within  the  enemy's  line  of  posts. 

Every  word  of  praise  ever  given  to  Joseph  Reed  in 
connection  with  the  affair  of  Trenton,  can  be  traced 
directly  to  Reed  himself  or  his  grandson. 

4. 

Again,  at  Germantown,  when  the  divisions  under  the 
command  of  Sullivan  and  Wayne  passed  Chew's  house 
without  delay,  and  Washington,  after  masking  Chew's 
house  with  a  single  regiment,  followed  with  the  reserve, 
and  continued  during  the  action  on  the  edge  of  battle, 
the  "  President's  "  grandson  will  have  it  that  Washing 
ton  and  his  staff  remained  near  Chew's  house,  and  gives 
a  statement  that  the  halt  was  persisted  in  against  the 
advice  of  Joseph  Reed.  Now  there  exists  no  evidence 


58  JOSEPH   KEED  : 

that  Reed,  who  was  at  that  time  not  in  the  army,  was 
present;  and  farther,  Sullivan's  contemporary  account, 
with  which  the  biographer  was  familiar,  places  Wash 
ington  in  the  heat  of  the  engagement  at  the  front. 

Thus  a  careful  examination  proves  that  William  B. 
Heed,  in  his  zeal  to  ascribe  to  his  grandfather  merit  that 
was  not  his  due,  libels  Washington,  places  him  as  an 
officer  below  mediocrity,  and  supports  his  insinuations 
by  a  series  of  misstatements  and  perversions. 

The  conclusion  of  the  whole  matter  is,  that  with  more 
elevation  of  nature,  and  more  of  the  spirit  of  a  martyr, 
Joseph  Heed  would  have  obtained  a  high  place  in  the 
annals  of  his  country ;  but,  as  it  is,  his  career  was  that 
of  a  selfish  and  not  very  successful  ambition,  and  his 
memory  will  suffer  least  by  allowing  it  to  repose  in 
obscurity. 

There  never  will  be  an  end  to  the  innocent  illusions 
of  family  vanity  ;  but  uniform  and  indiscriminate  praise 
destroys  individuality  of  delineation,  and  takes  from  his 
tory  its  instructiveness.  In  England  Earl  Stanhope  has 
written  from  the  best  materials  a  most  interesting  bio- 

o 

graphy  of  the  younger  Pitt,  with  whom  he  was  con 
nected  by  family  ties,  by  sentiments  of  gratitude,  and 
by  the  affinities  of  political  principles ;  yet  he  has  not 
hesitated  to  expose  the  very  grave  defects  in  his  charac 
ter  and  conduct,  and  has  obtained  approbation  for  can 
dor.  Lord  Russell  writes  a  biography  of  Fox,  which 
he  designates  as  "  a  Whig  life  "  of  Fox ;  but  still  the 
licentiousness  of  Fox  in  private  life,  and  the  occasional 
uncertainty  of  his  political  conduct,  are  not  concealed. 
At  least  four  British  writers  of  our  time,  three  of  whom 
still  live,  have  directly  or  incidentally  cast  opprobrium 
on  the  name  of  Wedderburn ;  yet  the  inheritor  of  his 


A   HISTOEICAL   ESSAY.  59 

title,  who  furnished  material  for  his  biography,  is  not  so 
unwise  as  to  indulge  in  an  angry  flood  of  vituperation 
against  those  who  had  no  object  in  view  but  historic 
fidelity,  and  who  would  have  been  false  to  their  own 
honor  if  they  had  neglected  to  give  utterance  to  the 
truth.  It  is  a  curious  fact,  that  this  extreme  irritability 
as  to  historic  statements  is  greater  in  this  country  than 
anywhere  else ;  and  if  we  accept  the  accounts  of  admi 
ring  descendants,  our  country  will  have  produced  a 
greater  number  of  incomparable  generals  and  faultless 
statesmen  than  all  the  world  beside.  Why  must  it  be 
that,  in  discussing  the  character  and  career  of  public 
men,  a  greater  sensitiveness  should  prevail  among  an 
adulatory  posterity  in  this  republic  than  in  older  lands  ? 
Ours  is  the  form  of  government  under  which  there 
exists  the  least  reason  for  hereditary  pride ;  and  where 
least  of  all  history  should  be  falsified  to  flatter  ground 
less  pretensions.  Is  it  that  because  we  are  as  yet  so  new, 
we  have  not  fully  learned  the  imperative  obligation 
of  the  laws  of  historical  criticism?  Whoever  acts  in 
public,  subjects  himself  to  public  judgment.  History 
is  the  high  court  of  humanity,  where  truth  must  be 
heard,  and  justice  must  be  pronounced.  In  this  happy 
abode  of  universal  freedom,  individual  men,  even  the 
best  of  them,  compared  to  the  people,  are  but  as  drops 
that  glisten  for  a  moment  in  the  light,  before  they  fall 
into  the  mighty  and  undecaying  ocean.  When  a  great 
English  statesman  was  publicly  complimented  as  the 
saviour  of  England  and  of  Europe,  he  put  aside  the 
praise  which  was  not  his  due.  I  apply  the  spirit  of  the 
remarks  which  he  then  made,  to  our  own  country.  The 
American  people  saved  themselves  by  their  exertions, 
and  will,  I  trust,  save  the  liberties  of  mankind  by  their 
example. 


APPENDIX. 


FRIEDRICH  KAPP  TO  GEORGE  BANCROFT  : — 

DEAR  SIR  : — In  accordance  with  your  request,  I  have  carefully 
read  Mr.  William  B.  Reed's  pamphlet,  entitled  "  President  Reed  of  Penn 
sylvania,"  and  paid  especial  attention  to  that  part  which  relates  to  the 
Donop  diary,  from  which  he  accuses  you  of  having  "adduced  a  mutilated 
extract." 

I  purpose  examining  the  question,  whether  or  not  you  were  correct  in 
your  assertion,  that  this  diary  alludes  positively  and  unqualifiedly  to  Col. 
Reed  as  having  obtained  a  protection. 

I  cannot  help  expressing  my  surprise,  that  Mr.  Reed,  in  writing  a 
pamphlet  intended  for  the  perusal  of  educated  men,  should  adopt  a  style 
of  vague  intimations  and  irrelevant  statements  which  would  naturally 
suggest  to  those  of  his  readers  who  are  acquainted  with  his  reputation  for 
ability,  that  the  writer  is  conscious  of  the  weakness  of  his  position,  and 
that  he  has  profited  by  the  instruction  conveyed  in  the  old  story  of  the 
barrister,  who  found  nothing  on  his  brief  except,  "  We  have  no  case ;  pitch 
into  the  plaintiff's  witnesses."  Indeed,  his  language  and  materials  appear 
more  like  those  of  a  village  orator,  endeavoring  to  vindicate  an  ancestor 
from  the  obloquy  which  more  enlightened  judgment  than  his  own  has 
occasioned,  than  those  of  a  dispassionate  inquirer  into  historical  truth- 
He  says :  "  he  has  [you  have],  it  seems,  been  more  successful  since,  but  he 
had  to  go  to  the  shameful  records  of  Brunswick  and  Hesse  Oassel,  to  the 
diaries  and  note-books  of  mercenary  strangers,  ignorant  of  the  English 
language — '  Ewalds,'  and  'Bourmeisters,'  and  even  l  Mundihausens1  (p. 
211),  before  he  succeeded  in  finding  what  he  seems  to  have  craved  so 
eagerly."  Ewald  and  Munchhausen,  here  mentioned,  spoke  English  well ; 
the  latter  was  sent  as  aide-de-camp  to  General  Howe,  to  act  as  translator 
and  interpreter  for  his  countrymen.  Mr.  Reed  resorts  to  the  unworthy 
subterfuge  of  causing  Munchhausen's  name  to  appear  in  italics,  doubtless  to 
discredit  your  authorities  by  casting  a  stigma  on  the  veracity  of  that  officer^ 
identifying  him  with  the  prince  of  mendacity  and  exaggeration  ;  thus  con 
veying  the  idea  that  Captain  Munchhausen,  who  was  in  fact  an  able  man 
and  an  acute  observer  of  events,  was  an  unreliable,  although  disinterested 
witness.  With  equal  propriety  we  could  doubt  the  ability  of  Daniel  Web 
ster  as  an  expounder  of  the  Constitution,  for  the  weighty  reason  that  a 


APPENDIX.  61 

Webster  once  existed  who  killed  his  creditor,  or  that  there  was  another 
Webster  who  was  a  reprobate. 

Mr.  Reed  resorts  to  a  shallow  artifice  in  endeavoring  to  enlist  in  his  ser 
vice  the  prejudice  of  Americans  against  the  German  mercenaries,  in  that 
part  where  he  says :  "  I  beg  the  reader  to  observe  that  I  have  not  conde 
scended  to  dwell  on  the  astounding  fact  that  an  American  writer,  who  on 
one  page  records  the  brutality  of  these  alien  mercenaries,  on  another, 
should  ostentatiously  cite  a  Hessian  colonel's  clerk  as  a  witness  against  his 
own  countrymen."  According  to  this  absurd  theory,  foreign  authors  are 
not  only  forbidden  to  write  American  history,  but  American  authors  are 
forbidden  to  write  it  from  the  testimony  of  foreign  witnesses.  Not  only 
the  jury,  but  the  witnesses  are  to  be  selected  by  the  party  on  trial.  This 
ridiculous  idea  may  be  further  developed  into  a  rule  forbidding  the  native 
of  one  section  of  a  country  to  write  the  history  of  another  portion,  or  to 
receive  assistance  from  an  alien  in  writing  the  history  of  his  own  province, 
and  makes  the  standard  of  birth  and  origin  the  only  legitimate  qualifica 
tions  of  an  historian.  To  my  mind  it  is  one  of  your  greatest  merits  that 
you  spared  neither  trouble  nor  expe'nse  in  ransacking  the  archives  of  the 
civilized  world  for  materials  which  would  assist  you  in  arriving  at  a  correct 
comprehension  of  the  events  you  desired  to  detail,  and  that  you  have  im 
partially  given  the  results  of  your  researches,  uninfluenced  by  personal 
considerations.  Mr.  Reed  is  of  course  justified  in  attempting  to  remove  a 
stain  from  the  reputation  of  his  deceased  relation,  but  if  in  doing  so  he 
willfully  seeks  to  degrade  your  best  merits,  he  commits  a  fault  which  can 
not  be  too  greatly  reprobated.  A  Hessian  colonel- should  not  be  a  witness 
against  an  American  !  And  why  not?  Is  it  because  he  was  a  mercenary  ? 
I  condemn  the  sale  of  soldiers  by  German  princes  as  unqualifiedly  as  any 
American  can,  and  the  history  of  that  shameful  transaction,  as  you  know, 
was  first  detailed  by  me ;  but  I  do  not  think  that  the  officers  and  men,  who 
derived  no  benefit  from  the  proceeding,  and  who  came  to  this  country 
much  against  their  inclinations,  are  deserving  of  so  much  blame  as  their 
princes,  who  derived  pecuniary  benefit  from  the  sale.  The  officers  received 
no  higher  pay  than  they  would  have  been  entitled  to  if  they  had  remained 
at  home.  They  did  not  come  as  greedy,  hungry  adventurers.  It  may  be 
a  humiliating  fact  that  they  fought  for  the  designs  of  another  people, 
but  it  is  seldom  now — and  it  was  much  more  so  at  that  time — that  a  war 
assumes  the  character  of  a  popular  struggle,  in  which  the  soldier  joins  in 
devotion  to  his  individual  principles.  That  the  soldier  must  obey  orders, 
and  not  reason  upon  the  necessity  of  their  execution,  is  one  of  the 
fundamental  rules  of  his  service.  I  commiserate  the  officers  who  were 
compelled  by  circumstances  to  fight  for  a  bad  cause  against  a  good  one, 
but  I  cannot  despise  them.  These  foreigners  owed  no  allegiance  to  the 
American  Government.  They  carne  here  as  public  enemies,  and  were 


62  APPEOT)IX. 

treated  as  such ;  but  their  personal  integrity  should  not  in  consequence 
suffer  reproach.  If  Mr.  Reed,  in  a  legal  proceeding,  had  occasion  to  ex 
amine  a  witness  whose  veracity  was  untainted,  but  who,  during  the  late 
rebellion,  had  conspired  with  the  enemies  of  his  country,  who  can  doubt 
that  he  would  speedily  dispose  of  the  objection  that  the  testimony  of  such 
a  witness  was  unworthy  of  credence  ?  Yet  in  doing  so  he  would  effectu 
ally  reply  to  the  objection  which  he  has  raised  to  the  credibility  of  Colonel 
Donop's  testimony.  The  only  proper  subjects  of  inquiry  should  be, 
whether  or  not  he  had  personal  knowledge  of  the  facts  he  narrates ;  whether 
or  not  he  had  any  interest  in  the  result ;  and  whether  or  not,  from  any  per 
sonal  qualities,  his  evidence  could  be  impeached.  Judged  by  these  tests,  I 
cannot  think  of  a  more  irreproachable  witness  than  the  author  of  this 
diary.  That  he  was  an  able  man  is  proved  by  his  correspondence,  and  by 
the  rank  which  he  attained  at  an  early  age ;  that  he  was  a  brave  soldier  is 
shown  by  his  being  placed  in  command  of  the  most  exposed  positions,  and 
by  his  gallant  death  at  Red  Bank  ;  and  that  he  was  entirely  disinterested, 
and  did  not  design  to  injure  an  American,  are  evident  in  his  diary,  written 
in  German,  which  remained  undiscovered  until  about  eighty  years  after  his 
death,  when  it  was  procured  from  an  historical  student  of  the  greatest 
respectability  living  in  Cassel,  thus  securing  for  it  all  the  advantages  which 
Mr.  Reed  claims  for  private  correspondence. 

What  does  Donop  say  ?  You  give  the  material  portion  in  the  original,  in 
a  note  to  page  229  of  your  volume.  Mr.  Reed  furnishes  a  correct  transla 
tion  of  parts  of  the  diary,  on  pages  89  and  90  of  his  pamphlet.  He  then 
says  : — "  So  far  what  he  says  is  pretty  near  the  truth.  Now  for  the  camp 
gossip,  which  Donop  was  unwilling  to  listen  to,  and  I  beg  the  reader  to 
observe  that  the  portion  in  italics,  which  shows  that  it  was  discredited 
hearsay,  is  carefully  suppressed  by  Mr.  Bancroft."  He  then  furnishes  a 
translation  of  the  hearsay,  which,  bearing  no  reference  to  the  matter  in 
question,  I  think  you  did  well  in  not  incurnbering  your  pages  by  inserting, 
and  afterwards  translates  incorrectly  that  "  the  Colonel  Reed  having  re 
ceived  a  protection  had  come  to  meet  General  Mifflin,"  &c.,  making  the  fact 
of  Colonel  Reed's  having  received  a  protection  appear  to  be  a  part  of  the 
reports  detailed  immediately  before,  instead  of  an  assertion  on  the  part  of 
the  writer,  contained  in  an  incidental  descriptive  clause.  "Der  Oberst  Reed 
der  neulich  eine  Protection  erhalten,  seye  dem  General  Mifflin  entgegen 
gekommen,"  &c.  This  passage  contains  the  essence  of  the  whole  testi 
mony,  and  on  its  correct  construction  depends  the  proper  appreciation 
of  the  nature  of  the  evidence.  I  impugn  the  accuracy  of  Mr.  Reed's  trans 
lation.  Whoever  made  that  translation  either  does  not  understand  Ger 
man,  or,  if  he  does,  he  has  designedly  altered  the  meaning  of  this  sentence, 
so  as  to  convey  the  false  impression  that  the  relative  clause,  "der  neulich 
eine  Protection  erhalten,"  was  a  part  of  the  reports;  while,  correctly  ren- 


APPENDIX.  63 

dered,  the  passage  reads :  "  The  Colonel  Reed  who  recently  received  a  protec 
tion,  is  said  to  have  gone  to  meet  General  Mifflin,"  &c.  The  writer  of  the 
manuscript  distinguished  the  colonel,  of  whom  he  reports  other  things  on 
hearsay,  by  this  relative  clause,  to  prevent  his  being  confounded  with  any 
other  man.  If  Mr.  Reed  had  placed  the  German  beside  his  translation,  his 
disingentiousness  would  have  been  apparent  to  any  German,  or  any  one 
who  knows  the  German  language. 

I  remain,  very  sincerely  yours, 

FRIEDRICH  KAPP. 


M.    GrERARD  A  M.   LE   COMTE  DE  YERGENNES. 
[Extrait.] 

PHILADELPIIIE,  4  Oct.,  1778. 

Les  Quakers  de  differentes  provinces  se  trouvant  ici  pour  letir  assemblee 
anriuelle,  on  voudrait  leur  donner  le  spectacle  de  voir  pendre  deux  de  leurs 
principaux  membres.  La  consternation  est  grande  parmi  eux,  mais  on  ne 
se  flatte  pas  encore  quMls  cedent  inmediatement  a  la  necessite  des 
circonstances.  Comme  les  traits  qui  caracterisent  les  moeurs  de  ce  pays-ci 
sont  peut-etre  dignes  de  quelqu'attention,  je  remarquerai  qu'un  ancien 
membre  du  Congres  et  le  juge  de  1'amiraute  se  sont  charges  de  defendre  les 
Quakers  accuses  de  haute  trahison  :  Un  membre  actuel  etait  dispose  a  se 
joindre  a  eux,  mais  comme  le  temps  de  Pelection  approche,  il  a  cede  a  la 
clameur  publique,  et  il  a  servi  au  contraire  de  second  au  procureur  G'al. 
On  parle  de  le  dedornmager  de  ce  sacrifice  qui  n'est  pas  mediocre, 
puisque  Roberts  a  donne  six  mille  pounds  a,  ses  defenseurs. 


M.  DE  MARBOIS  AU  COMTE  DE  YERGENNES. 

[Extrait} 

A  PHILADELPHIE  le  29  Septembre,  1780. 

Les  mal-intentionnes  sont  en  tres  grand  nombre  dans  cet  Etat,  et  les 
Quakers  portent,  dit-on,  la  mauvaise  volonte  jusques  a  ne  pas  ensemencer 
leurs  terres  dans  Fesperance  d'augrnenter  les  besoins  publics;  mais  indepen- 
damment  de  cette  classe  d'hommes,  le  President  de  1'Etat  sacrifie  tout  au 
desir  d'accroitre  sa  popularite,  et  s'obstine  a  ne  lever  ni  troupes  ou  con 
tingent,  ni  les  taxes  qui  lui  sont  assignees,  dans  Tesperance  que  pour  prix 
de  ses  managements  le  peuple  prolongera  son  autorite  au  dela  du  terme 
fixe  par  la  Constitution.  Le  Congres  voit  par  sa  resistance  le  plan  de 
finance  du  mois  de  mars  dernier  sur  le  point  d'echouer. 


64  APPENDIX. 

M.  LE  CHEVALIER  DE  LA  LUZERNE  A  M.  DE  EAYNEVAL. 
[Extrait] 

PHILADELPHIE,  19  Octobre,  1782. 

Mr.  Reed,  apres  avoir  exerce1  dans  toute  son  etendue  le  pouvoir  que  la 
Constitution  accorde  au  premier  magistrat  de  1'etat,  apres  avoir  pendant  trois 
ans  fait  mouvoir  a  son  gr6  un  gouvernement  compose  de  ses  creatures, 
tombe  dans  Tavilissement,  parait  charge  de  la  haine  et  du  mepris  de  la 
plnpart  de  ses  concitoyens,  et  e'prouver  combien  la  faveur  du  peuple  est 
passagere  quand  elle  n'est  fondee  que  sur  1'intrigue. 


PRESIDENT  EEED. 


Mr.  Joseph  Reed  is  a  native  of  New  Jersey  ;  his  parents  were  persons 
in  the  middle  state  of  life ;  he  received  a  good  education,  and,  before  the 
commencement  of  the  present  war,  practiced  law  in  the  Superior  Court  of 
Pennsylvania,  and  was  esteemed  eminent  in  his  profession.  The  public 
papers  will  convey  to  you  a  better  idea  of  this  person  than  any  thing  I  can 
say  in  respect  to  his  character  as  a  statesman.  In  his  private  character  he  is 
a  man  of  polite  address,  a  good  fluency  of  speech,  exceedingly  artful,  much 
attached  to  his  interest,  and  ambitious  of  being  respected  as  a  great  man. 
He  is  possessed  of  some  good  qualities,  but  his  avarice  casts  a  shade  over 
them.  This  failing  has  so  great  an  ascendency  over  him,  that  he  does  not 
blush  to  let  his  own  brother  go  through  the  streets  of  Philadelphia  sawing 
wood,  and  doing  common  labor  round  the  docks. — In  Sir  Guy  Garleton's 
No.  60,  of  15th  March,  1783. 


[Extract.} 

In  Pennsylvania  they  [parties]  have  run  very  high,  and  are  now  headed 
by  Mr.  Dickenson,  the  present  Governor,  and  Mr.  Reed,  his  predecessor. 
Till  lately,  all  the  principal  people  were  much  attached  to  Mr.  Dickenson, 
thinking  him  a  man  of  very  superior  abilities,  which,  as  a  courtier,  he 
certainly  is ;  but  they  now  find  him  timorous,  fickle,  and  indecisive,  an 
unfit  character  to  govern  a  State  in  its  present  convulsed  situation.  Mr. 
Reed,  his  opponent,  and  head  of  the  other  party,  or  rather  the  mobility,  is 
a  man  of  great  abilities,  possessed  of  a  daring,  enterprising  genius,  but  said 
to  be  destitute  of  every  honorable  sentiment. — In  Sir  Guy  Carletorts  No. 
68,  of  13th  April,  1783. 


Just  published,  in  handsome  crown  Svo.,  cloth,  cut  or  uncut  edges,  price  $2.50; 
half  calf,  $4.0<X 

THE  ^BNEID  OF  VIRGIL 

TRANSLATED  INTO  ENGLISH  VERSE, 


JOHN  CONINGTON,  M.  A. 

CORPUS    PROFESSOR    OF    LATIN    IX    THE    UNIVERSITY    OF    OXFORD. 


"The   rendering  is   almost    invariably 
life-like,  flowing,  and  readable.    Professor 


prolonged  commentatorial 
study  of  VIRGIL  has  given  him  a  freedom 
and  power  in  bringing  out  the  meaning  of 
his  Author  which  has  enabled  him,  on  the 
whole,  to  keep  remarkably  close  to  the 
original,  notwithstanding  that  his  metre  is 
one  that  would,  perhaps  more  than  any 
other,  justify  a  translator  in  leaving  the 
track.  A  bright  and  pleasing  poem  in  it 
self,  this  book  will  certainly  do  much  to 
increase  among  the  general  public  a  right 
understanding  and  appreciation  of  the 
great  Roman  epic."  FRASER'S  MAGAZINE. 

"It  is  a  surprising  triumph  of  skill,  and 
as  a  translation  it  is  more  faithful  to  the 
original  than  one  would  have  thought  it 
possible  to  make  one  under  the  conditions 
of  an  English  rhyming  metre,  especially 
where  the  rhymes  occur  so  quickly.  *  *  * 
To  those  who  are  able  to  study  it  with  the 
original  before  them,  it  will  appear  a  mar 
vellous  instance  of  difficulties  happily 
overcome.  *  *  *  As  a  readable  version  of 
a  favorite  Author,  we  heartily  commend 
the  work,  and  readers  may  congratulate 
themselves  upon  the  possession  of  a 
translation  which  will  certainly  give  them 
some  iair  idea  of  one  of  the  most  accom 
plished  poems  of  antiquity.  So  pleasant 
is  Mr.  CONINGTON'S  translation  in  the  read 
ing,  that  the  critic  almost  forgets  his  voca 
tion,  and  fancies  himself  perusing  a  mod 
ern  composition  based  on  the  original 
story."  LONDON  DAILY  NEWS. 

"  Professor  CONINGTON  tells  us  that  his 
chief  reason  for  adopting  the  metre  which 
SCOTT  has  made  popular  was,  that  it  gave 
him  the  best  chance  of  imparting  to  his 
<\rork  that  rapidity  of  movement  which  is 
indispensably  necessary  to  a  long  narrative 
poem.  In  this  he  has  been  successful; 
for  we  confess  that  one  of  the  charms  of 
his  work  is  that  it  is  eminently  readable. 
On  this  ground  we  predict  that  the  book 
will  be  very  popular.  Nor,  while  it 


pleases  those  to  whom  the  original  is  a 
sealed  book,  will  it  fail  to  refresh  the 
memory  of  the  scholar  and  vividly  repro 
duce  the  beauties  of  a  favorite  author 
*  *  *  Turn  where  we  will,  the  book  has 
the  most  continuous  power  of  interesting 
of  any  that  we  have  met  with.  If  Pro- 
lessor  CONINGTON  cannot  be  classed  with 
DRYDEN  as  a  poet,  he  is  far  his  superior 
as  a  scholar,  and  the  fragrance  of  Virgil- 
ian  language  has  not  evaporated  in  his 
ham  Is.  The  scholar  will  delight  in  com 
paring  it  with  the  original,  and  it  will  be 
equally  acceptable  in  the  boudoir  as  in  the 
library."  LONDON  TIMES. 

"  It  would  be  easy  to  dilate  on  the  many 
poetic  turns  which  add  grace  to  this  trans 
lation;  but  scholars  and  general  readers 
will  be  more  interested  to  learn  that  it 
is  singularly  faithful,  and  most  rarely 
misses  to  express  every  thought  and  phrase 
of  the  poem  it.  represents  in  translation. 
So  much  is  this  the  case,  that  we  would  as 
soon  see  it  in  the  hands  of  an  intelligent 
school-boy  as  any  commentary.  This,  in 
itself,  is  high  praise  of  any  translation  : 
and  the  best  gauge  of  its  accuracy,  as  well 
as  of  its  Author's  qualifications  in  point 
of  Scholarship.  There  was  no  antecedent 
doubt  on  this  point,  of  course,  as  regards 
the  Corpus  Professor  of  Latin.  And 
many  of  his  friends  and  contemporaries 
are  cognisant  of  his  poetic  gifts,  though 
we  scarcely  think  his  Odes  of  HORACE 
were  so  happy  or  ripe  a  fruit  as  his  sEiieid 
of  VIRGIL.  If  it  should  be  found,  as  we 
believe  it  will,  with  regard  to  this  latter, 
that  it  may  be  put  into  the  hands  of  edu 
cated  women  and  girls,  and  read  by  them 
book  after  book  with  pleasure,  interest, 
and  persistency,  notwithstanding  their 
lack  of  knowledge  of  the  original,  Pro 
fessor  CONINGTON  will  have  proved  him 
self  able  to  achieve  what  no  translator  of 
VIRGIL  has  achieved  before  him,  and  have 
earned  no  secondary  place  among  a  goodly 
host  of  translators  from  the  antique." 
CHURCHMAN. 


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